 It is now time for Member Statements. Member for Hamilton East, Tony Cooke. Thank you, Speaker. Speaker, I'd like to start today by thanking the OSTF, FO, OECTA, the AEFO, and CUPI, and all the other Labour groups who organized the largest rally I've seen in a very long time this past weekend. With nearly 30,000 protesters here at Queen's Park, I can't think of a clearer demonstration of how educators, school administrators, board trustees, parents, and, of course, students feel about the proposed changes and cuts to our public education system. Recently, my office was contacted by a student from Orchard Park Secondary School in Stony Creek. The student was selected by his peers to communicate with my office. He's a clarinet player in Orchard Park's instrumental band, which recently won the CBC Music Class Challenge. From across the nation, thousands of secondary school students took part in this competition. It was Stony Creek's very own Orchard Park that took first place with their rendition of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah. The potential loss of programs like this will be devastating to the skills development of our students. The loss of these programs will result in a loss of real-life lasting experiences that many of our young teenagers may be experiencing for the first time. These vital skills are sought after by colleges, universities, and employers. They are the skills that allow each student to stand out and to determine their paths in life, to gain the confidence that comes from victory and to learn the lessons of hard work, loyalty, teamwork, sacrifice, and tenacity. We must realize that for every teacher who loses to the cuts, we could lose the wonderful sports teams, the clubs, the bands, and the programs that are the lifeblood of our educational system. Teachers are the reason these programs exist and we must not pull the rug out from underneath them. I would like to thank the students of my community for voicing their concerns, the labor unions for their strong support, and to the teachers of this province for the immeasurable dedication and professionalism they display every single day. Thank you very much. Member Statements, the member for Eglinton Lawrence. Thank you Mr. Speaker. Today is a great day for the residents of my riding of Eglinton Lawrence. Our government has announced an ambitious and historic transit plan for the greater Toronto area. $8.5 billion and I just like to take a few moments to highlight two projects which will be of particular benefit to my constituents. The Ontario line to be built by 2027 will help relieve dangerous congestion on the young subway line that my constituents face each and every day they ride the subway downtown. Ensuring the construction of this important transit line is a priority for my constituents and I am so proud that our government has developed a plan to build a line that will serve more people and have more stations than the city's current plan and deliver it two years earlier. That is really important for my constituents is the western extension of the Eglinton Crosstown LRT a large portion of which will be built underground and which will provide residents of my riding with rapid transit access to the Toronto Pearson airport. That's a huge benefit. Our government will also move forward with a three stop subway extension to Scarborough and a northern extension of the young subway line to open after the Ontario line is complete. Mr. Speaker, we said that we would get subways built in the city of Toronto and today we've taken a giant step toward making that happen. Thank you very much. Thank you, Speaker. Families in the north feel ignored by this government's latest autism plan. Solutions to the lack of available providers and the high travel costs in the north aren't there. Announcements are made on the fly and details are provided and parents have questions and no one has answers for them. A constituent of mine in Attic Hoken, Brittany Smith has a three year old son, Wesley who is newly diagnosed on the autism spectrum. Brittany has questions about the government's new plan but no one seems to have an answer for her family particularly the Minister of Children Community and Social Services. I've written to her myself several times and she said that under the new system Brittany believes Wesley will never receive most of the services he needs. Her family simply won't be able to afford them. Brittany says that if she could she would pay for those services out of her own pocket but that's just not possible and it's not possible for almost any family in Ontario to afford. On top of that there are the travel costs of northern families and their employment takes time and money but the Minister hasn't announced any extra money for this that means northern families will be spending more of their family budgets on mileage, hotels and food and that's not equitable. Yet another example of why parents in the north feel that their concerns are being ignored. Thank you. Member Statements, Member for Mississauga Streetsville. I would like to talk about the historic festival of Basaki. This day is observed as a Punjabi Thanksgiving Day by farmers where they pay tribute thanking God for the abundant harvest and also praying for future prosperity. This day also signifies the Seek New Year originating in the year 1699. Basaki has traditionally been celebrated around the world on April the 13th and for all Seek holds great religious significance as it marks the birth of the 10th Seek Guru, Guru Gobind Singh and the Foundation of Kalsa. I wish to recognize that there is very successful and prominent Punjabi population in Canada who contribute to our diverse and multicultural heritage, economy and great voluntary service to our province. In Ontario the Basaki parades are held in April in Toronto and Mississauga. There are cultural events such as food fair, pub or turpentine and food fairs. On April the 4th we celebrated Seek Heritage Month here at Queen's Park and the 550th anniversary of the birth of the first Seek Guru, Guru Nanak Dev Ji. This day holds great importance in my life as although the year is still not confirmed my husband Dashwani was born on this day of Basaki in India needless to say no one forgets his birthday. Mr. Speaker I wish everyone around the world a very happy Basaki. Member for Toronto Centre. Thank you Speaker. Business improvement areas in my riding of Toronto Centre exemplify the best of what small businesses can do for their communities. In addition to strengthening local economies, BIAs in my riding are integral to the fabric of our communities. I'd like to share a few examples of the great work that BIAs are doing in my community. Every June the Church Wellesley Village BIA host Village Fest on the weekend before the Pride Parade. This event brings together LGBTQ plus folks and their allies from across Toronto Centre and across the world to celebrate Pride with pop-up vendor spaces, drag shows, musical guests and 13 patios along Church Street. This is a weekend that's surely not one to be missed. In Corktown their BIA is actually a really unique model that can be used by residents and business association. Their united voice enables them to take on ambitious projects like running their own community newspaper where I proudly contribute as a quarterly columnist. And with Spring Upon Us many BIAs are organizing local park cleanups including the St. Lawrence BIA. Their annual cleanup which is coming up at the end of the month in David Cromby Park even includes a pancake breakfast. I wish Speaker that I had more time to talk about BIAs in Toronto Centre. They are a cornerstone of small businesses and community building in my riding. I'm forever grateful for all of the work that they do. Thank you. The member for Orléans. Thank you Mr. Speaker. My office has been hosting in collaboration with my federal counterpart Andrew Leslie free tax clinics for Orléans residents who may not otherwise have the financial mean to file their taxes. We have had an incredible outpour of people providing this service. Registered accountants have selflessly volunteered their time to provide in-person support for our six tax clinics. We all succeed when the community pulls together to help those in need. Also Mr. Speaker on March 23rd bright French students gathered to participate in the regional Orléans Gloucester spelling bee competition hosted by Epelmois Canada. I would like to take this time to thank Giselle Alon secondary school for their welcome, their volunteer judges and the organizers Maryann Fanny and Gabriel Nagami. Their devotion to French language and their support for this educational program is remarkable. Building on the importance of supporting young people I had the privilege of attending the 30th annual concours de club in Paris. I would like to thank the youth from various francophone schools in Orléans as well as their parents for participating. I also have to thank Serge Monson and his team for their devotion to our youth. Thank you Mr. Speaker. Thank you. Member Statements, the member for Sault Ste Marie. Thank you Mr. Speaker. Thank you. Mr. Speaker what brought me into getting involved in politics was a problem that we've had in Sault Ste Marie ever since I was a young person in my early teens and that was the issue of Sault Ste Marie's youth leaving the Sault and the outmigration of youth is a problem in so many different places especially throughout the north but certainly was a major problem that plagued my community and has plagued it for nearly three or more decades now and after moving back to Sault Ste Marie and being one of the fortunate people that was able to return to my hometown I found it so problematic and I wanted to find a way to get involved and my wife suggested to me I should run for politics run to be an MPP so that I could try to help end the outmigration of our youth and try to help find a way to keep our kids four, five and six years old in Sault Ste Marie. I came up with this idea Mr. Speaker as a result of having a number of businesses that I had toured in my community suggest to me that it was really important that they found a way to fill their positions and they had a hard time filling numerous positions that were available within those businesses having toured a lot of them I thought they looked so cool I thought let's bring the students directly to these places so I brought the student committee I created of 12 students representing all of our high schools and university and I brought them all to our local principal businesses five of them in particular and I'm just noting the clock Mr. Speaker I know it took a bit to start so I'm going to assume I still have a minute, thank you unless I'm otherwise corrected and I brought this group of 12 students to our principal five businesses being Algoma Steel, JD Arrow, Oruco Ecom and OLG and the students were absolutely floored by the students and they saw it all these different businesses and all the job opportunities they saw at these various businesses and we referred to that process as phase one phase two I will be going into the schools to speak to all the students individually at the high schools and in what we call phase three we are hosting the first ever student led job fair in Sault Ste. Marie where we will have a lot of our businesses and thousands of jobs available up for grabs so I just want to be very aware of that yes thank you well thank you very much for your cooperation I appreciate it appreciate your statement as well member statements the member for London West thank you speaker two years ago London became the first Ontario city to join the UN safe cities initiative a worldwide effort to deal with the sexual violence experienced by women and girls today I am proud to share another significant first for my community one that I hope charts a path for every other municipality in this province on April 8 London moved one step closer to becoming the first Ontario city to make improving safety for women and girls a stand alone focus of its strategic plan this was the result of the leadership and advocacy of two local organizations ANOVA our women's shelter and sexual assault centre and the London abused women's centre both organizations have seen a two fold increase in demand for services since 2017 in the face of provincial funding that is completely inadequate to meet community needs I want to publicly applaud London's mayor and council for voting unanimously to make the safety of women and girls a strategic focus special thanks to mayor Ed Holder and councillor Elizabeth Paloza who movingly shared their own personal experiences with gender based violence showing both the pervasiveness of the problem and the devastating impact it has I look forward to the final vote on the strategic plan at the end of the month speaker London understands that enhancing the safety of women and girls improves economic and social well-being for all of us it's time for this government to understand it too thank you speaker thank you very much Mr. Speaker Mr. Speaker I rise today to pay tribute to Ontario's 40,000 registered practical nurses many of whom are here at Queen's Park today for the registered practical nurses association of Ontario annual lobby day registered practical nurses or RPNs are healthcare professionals that work anywhere in this province that healthcare is provided in hospitals homes for seniors nursing homes retirement homes public health units community nursing agencies clinics private practice industry schools childcare centres and children's camps among others RPNs study from the same body of nursing knowledge as other nurses with a focus body of knowledge across all areas of nursing practice RPNs comprise the fastest growing group in the community care sector and the largest group of nursing care providers in the long-term care sector and we look forward to working with them as we work towards our commitment of creating 15,000 long-term care spaces over the next five years Mr. Speaker I want to thank Ontario's registered practical nurses for their hard work and continued dedication to building a stronger healthcare system for all Ontarians thank you for all you do to keep us healthy thank you Mr. Speaker Member States Member for Durham Speaker I rise in anticipation of tomorrow's budget I've been elected as Durham's representative at Queens Park for a little over nine months since the 2018 election campaign like it was last week we made promises to put money back in people's pockets clean up the hydro mess bring jobs back to Ontario end hallway healthcare and restore trust and accountability in the government's finances and we've delivered over 200 initiatives to date with those objectives in mind now in spite of all this positive progress I have to be frank speaker last week I was left by the previous government still puts Ontario's future at risk the Liberals were spending 40 million dollars a day more than they were taking in and they saddled the people of Ontario with a 15 billion dollar deficit and left a 346 billion dollars in public debt the issue is not the 346 it's the 90s it's an unacceptable burden to leave our children and our grandchildren in Durham and it's a fiscal and moral imperative that cannot be ignored speaker I expect budget 2019 will be a thoughtful, measured and forward looking plan that will restore fiscal balance in a reasonable and responsible manner while protecting critical public services like health care and education we all cherish together we can build up Ontario as a place to grow and a place that is once again the economic powerhouse of confederation together we can make Durham a better place to live, work and raise a family speaker I look forward to tomorrow's budget thank you the member for Orléans and for Misha has a point of order I would like to ask my colleagues again for UC with your indulgence since we have a ministerial statement and we would like to share our time, thank you member for Orléans is seeking unanimous consent of the house to share time in response to the ministerial statements agreed agreed