 It's therefore time for our member's statements. The member from Huron, Bruce. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. One of the greatest things about the holiday season is how people connect with their community and get to take part in extra special events that only happen once a year. It has become a tradition for citizens and community members to gather at the Formosa Lions Park, as well as the nativity scene, to enjoy the grand opening of a gorgeous, gorgeous, handmade nativity scene. Last Friday, families came out and enjoyed many festivities to mark this event. People sampled traditional Christmas treats such as sweet bannock, viewed the nativity scene from a horse-drawn wagon, made festive crafts, sang Christmas carols, and the kids even had a visit from Santa himself. Whatever the holiday people celebrate, events like these always connect people to their communities and provide an opportunity to marvel in the holiday spirit and community pride. Congratulations to the Formosa Lions, and thank you to the generous sponsors and hard-working organizers of the Formosa nativity scene, and for those across Ontario who are putting on similar events that bring people together this holiday season. And by all means, if you're traveling along County Road 12, either in Huron County or Bruce County, make sure you take the time to go through Formosa and check out the amazing work of this local community. Thank you very much. Thank you, Speaker. I want to commend the town of Pellum Mayor Dave Augustine and Town Council, whose reputations have been under attack by a group of regional politicians. Throughout Mayor Augustine has been honest, transparent, and displayed the very best of what we ask of our public servants. KPMG recently released an audit clearing the town, council, and mayor of any wrongdoing. Despite this, Grimsby Councillor Tony Quirk, the mayor of the Niagara Region's Audit Committee, questions the accounting expertise and said he will continue to pursue his concerns. Now, Mr. Quirk is also on the NPCA board, who I talk about quite often, and recently launched a verbal attack against a superior court judge who dismissed the Conservation Authority's lawsuit against a decorated military veteran Ed Smith. As the justice noted, there are many places in the world one might expect such a crackdown on free speech and criticism to happen, but not in our beloved dominion of Canada. Thus, Mr. Quirk's attacks on Pellum are highly hypocritical. He should release the legal costs for the NPCA's suing of a private citizen if he's on a mission of transparency and accountability. The people of Niagara are fed up with petty politics embraced by the NPCA board members. The All-Party Provincial Public Accounts Committee has appointed the Auditor General. Port Cobrin is now calling for a supervisor, and I will continue to work on this file and encourage other municipalities in the NPCA watershed paying millions of tax dollars to do the same, because that is how democracy works. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Minister. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My writing of Miss Saga Arendelle is home to the University of Toronto, Miss Saga campus. It is a matter of great pride to have such a word renowned post-secondary institution educating our students right in our back yard. The UTM campus has expanded over the years thanks to the investments made by the Government of Ontario, the city, and the community. Another important factor is the leadership and vision of the administrators and the hard work of the professors who make UTM such a desirable destination for higher learning. On December 16th, I had the privilege of attending the installation of Professor Ulrich Crowe as the ninth principal of UTM. It was a well-deserved occasion to celebrate the success and contribution of Professor Crowe as he took over the important and key leadership position at UTM. I would also like to congratulate Deep Sani, the outgoing UTM principal for his hard work and dedication. It has been a privilege to get to know him personally and work with him over the years. He's on to Australia. He's the Chancellor in one of the universities in Australia right now and I want to wish him all the best. I have the utmost confidence that with Professor Crowe's dedication, leadership, and vision, UTM will continue on a successful path. His passion for academia, research, and more importantly for the students and the school will be unrivaled and I wish him all the best going forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you for the number of students, the number from Leeds Grandville. Last Thursday I attended the official opening of Oxford-on-Reedo Public Schools Tech Education Program. It was an incredible night to celebrate how a dedicated group of parents brought a leading edge coding, computer science, and robotics program to this small rural school. To see those young students so enthused about what they were doing was truly inspiring. I wasn't there more than a few minutes, Speaker, before student Liam Steadman invited me to sit at a computer to try my hand at coding. Throughout the gym, small robots programmed by the students zipped about to the amazement of parents, grandparents, and special guests. Talking to the students and teachers, you could hear how Oxford-on-Reedo Tech is doing more than teaching students to succeed in a world where coding is the new literacy. Even if a career in robotics isn't in their future, the program is sharpening essential problem-solving and analytical reasoning skills. The driving force behind Oxford-on-Reedo Tech is the Lex Tonio family, Brent, his wife Katie, and daughters Addison and Taylor. Brent actually presented the idea to the Upper Canada Board Trustees during an accommodation review meeting in March. And despite the heartbreaking outcome of that process for their school, Brent persevered. Just nine short months later, it's amazing how far that they have come. Speaker, Oxford-on-Reedo Tech is proof that high-tech programs can be delivered in any school, regardless of size or location. It just takes a dedicated group of parents and educators working together to make it happen. Thank you, Speaker. Member for Tameka Mikako. Thank you. Last week, the government announced increased bus services for the North through ONTC. And while we appreciate that they're loosening the choke hold a little bit on the ONTC, this certainly isn't the enhanced bus service that we were promised when this government killed our passenger rail. And since that killing of the passenger rail, we've seen bus stations close, seniors have to wait in mall parking lots for the bus, and that is not changing with this announcement. That's why we, the NDP, under Andrea Horvath, one of our priorities is to bring passenger rail back to the North and have passenger rail work with the bus service to actually provide a coordinated passenger transportation system. And how we're going to do that is we're going to talk to the people who use that system, talk to Northerners, give Northerners the tools so they can make the decisions to make a system that is not only going to benefit the North, but is going to benefit the whole province because the North is one of the engines of this province. And that's why it's so crucial that we have equitable service along with our neighbors and our co-ontarians to the south. And this might be my last time to speak in the house before Christmas, so I would like to wish my friends at home and my friends here a very merry Christmas. Thank you. So we'll send us the member from Durham. Thank you, Speaker. Today we commemorate the first anniversary of the new Lakeridge Health, which include Bowmanville and Port Perry hospitals. On December 1, 2016, Lakeridge Health, a five-hospital health system was created to serve residents across Durham region. Lakeridge Health is comprised of five community hospitals located in Ajax, Bowmanville, Oshawa, Port Perry, and Whitby, and 16 community locations across Durham region. With a talented team of more than 5,000 dedicated doctors, nurses, healthcare workers, and more than 1,500 volunteers, Mr. Speaker, Lakeridge Health cares for more than 1,600 people each and every day. Lakeridge Health has evolved into a regional system to offer better access to care to provide better, more coordinated care close to home. Lakeridge Health and its healthcare partners provide safe, high-quality care to people across the Durham region. Speaker, I congratulate everyone at Lakeridge Health for their dedication and commitment to the delivery of safe quality care for the people we, they collectively serve. This is a historic day, Mr. Speaker, and one that I'm very proud of. And I was there when we made the decision to have a Lakeridge Health system. Thank you, Speaker. Thank you for the members. David's the member for my team, Kent Middlesex. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. It gives me great pleasure to inform the House in all of Ontario that for the first time in history, a Canadian crew chief has won the NASCAR Cup Series Championship. Wow. Cole Perron from Mount Bridges and his Furniture Row Racing Team clinched the title at the Homestead Miami Speedway on November 19th after winning seven other races during the 2017 season. Cole began his racing career at Delaware Speedway when he was only six years old. As a driver, he was a three-time Canadian National Kart Racing Champion and raced in the Cascar Super Series. He eventually made the move to the U.S. and used his University of Waterloo Education to transition from being a driver to working on racing crews as an engineer. He became crew chief for the Furniture Row Team in 2015, a leadership role that really shows how respected and trusted Cole is in the sport. Their Cup Series victory came after a year marked by professional victories and personal tragedies for Cole and his racing team. Long pegged his underdogs, their success this season is a testament to their skill, talent and perseverance. I want to congratulate Cole Perron and his team on their incredible victory, especially in the face of long odds and personal trials. And I also want to thank Cole for bringing a new level of excitement and pride to the Canadian racing community and especially to Lampton Kent Middlesex. Thank you. Thank you for the member of status, the member from Davenport. Thank you, Speaker. I rise today to inform the House of the completion of a critical project in my riding of Davenport. Last Thursday I was at the Abrigo Center to announce and open the construction of a new elevator to allow seniors and other people with mobility issues to access more of the fantastic programming that the Abrigo Center offers. I've been privileged to represent Davenport because organizations that are as great as the Abrigo are few and far between in this province and few have been serving their communities for so long. For over 25 years the doors of the Abrigo Center have been open to selflessly serve our neighbors and to make Davenport the best community it can be. But there was one thing that stood in the way of it serving even more community members and that was the lack of an elevator. And every time I visited Abrigo the seniors would always tell me of their need to have an elevator. That's why when I announced that the Abrigo Center would be receiving $136,000 from the Ontario Trillium Foundation for this project last February I was very excited. I knew that this project would be one that made lives better for seniors in Davenport. I knew because the Abrigo Center has already empowered our seniors community to lead active and engaged lives and this elevator ensures that more seniors can participate in the Abrigo Center's programming. I also want to thank Leona, Local 183 for their generous donation to ensure that this project had the needed funding. Leona have always been an organization that gives back to the community and this project truly could not have been possible without their support. Projects like this often make the most difference in our communities. And I'm glad to report the completion of this elevator to the House. Thank you. Thank you very much Mr. Speaker. Before we talk about the Gala I was at this past Sunday December 3rd for the International Center of Human Rights their annual award ceremony. It's an independent nongovernmental organization and their objective is to develop the means and methodology for establishing democracy and human rights protections. The president is Dr. Buzari and the director is Mr. Adeshir Zarizeda and Dr. Kamilia Mirdami a really really bright young woman was the emcee the minister of research innovation and science was there. Ari Moghini who is one of my volunteers taught me to greet everybody with Darudbaar Shaba which is greetings to all in Farsi and they celebrated Professor Payam Arkavan who's from the Baha'i and the Human Rights Award went to MP James Bazan and Tony Clement was there to speak as well Mr. Speaker and I just want to say that Shivaloi Majundar from the Institute said and I quote real leadership means doing what we say and ensuring what we say is heard in the deepest recesses of the darkest prisons it means a line with those who dare to confront the terror of Hezbollah and Hamas it means acting and acting now on behalf of the voiceless whose hope hinges on our capacity for moral clarity and not the cowardice of moral equivalence and I was very proud to be there to represent Thornhill I was happy to see Councillor James from Toronto City Council there as well and I was glad to speak on behalf of the Yazidis and other persecuted minorities thank you Mr. Speaker I thank all members for their statements it's there