 Next, we have Member Statements. I recognize the Member for Algoma, Manitoulin. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We just finished our riding week, and I'm certain that all visitors visited their own communities, heard of stories of misery that our people in the ridings are suffering with, and I want to share one. I met Mrs. Laurent de Meulemyu in Chaplot, and she told me when she was taking care of her mother, who was in long-term care at the hospital, an ALC bed at the hospital. She should have been in long-term care. She is taking care of her mother. She goes there two or three times a day to make sure her mother is well. The mother said, and she told me it's clear that it's not a problem where the people work at the hospital with them. She knows that they do all that is possible for her. But one day when she arrived, the mother was stuck in her bed without having been changed for the day. She looked at me and said, it's my mother. I love her. I'm taking care of her. I don't know where to go to ensure that problems are addressed and she received care. Laurent told me that the problem is not with people at the hospital. It's with the funds that are not available for the hospital. We have to change things and invest as needed in our long-term care homes. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Member Statements. Member for Richmond Hill. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This weekend I had the honour of participating in the 2019 CPAC annual gala. CPAC, formerly Chinese Professionals Association of Canada, was first founded in 1992 as a registered not-for-profit organisation. The mandate is to assist internationally trained professionals in gaining recognition, cultural integration, career advancement, civic engagement in Canada and abroad. I am very impressed with the four recipients they recognised this year. Serena Chan, a partner of IBM Financial Services, is one of the Canada's top 50 women in Vintag. Serena holds 16 professional certificates, is a four-time IBM Red Book author, as well as she received 28 personal awards. My. Dr. Hee Yoon-hee is the platform director for hematology, cancer, immunological diseases in Toronto Street, St. Michael Hospital. A senior scientist at the Canadian Blood Services Centre for Innovation and Profession at University of Toronto. Dr. Hee ranked number one professional wide for fundamental research. Allow me to say two more very quickly. Claire Wang is the private banker at HSBC and is the president of Emerging Young Artists. Mr. Ming Yoliu is an exceptional academic leader who has overcome the impossible. Despite not having an education background in North America, he became a professor at the University of Toronto. Congratulations to all of the achievements. Member for Hamilton East Stony Creek. Thank you, Speaker. Speaker, why is the government afraid to go on record and state once and for all that it will not amalgamate any of the existing 59 municipal ambulance services? Why? Speaker, is the government afraid to go on record and state once and for all that it does not intend to privatize any portion of ambulance service delivery in this province? Ontario's existing 8800 frontline paramedics along with our 1100 ambulance communication officers serve our communities 24-7 with world-class free hospital emergency care and transportation for over 1.2 million Ontarians. Presently almost one-third of all 911 calls for medical assistance come from the elderly. At this age demographic continues to increase, the demands on paramedic services will increase like never before. By investing into modern ambulance dispatch technology, more patients could be diverted from our overcrowded ERs as more could be treated on-site or transported to other more appropriate health facilities. In this government, is the government prepared to proactively invest and expand upon the existing community paramedic programs which have shown to reduce the number of 911 calls and transports to hospital for the most vulnerable sectors of our society? In fact, Speaker, the City of Hamilton saw a 58% decrease in frequent ambulance callers compared to the previous year simply by connecting with select patients and monitoring health risk factors before they become medical emergencies requiring ambulance transport to the ER. With the appropriate tools and resources, the current municipal-based ambulance service delivery model is more than capable of meeting the increasing demands for emergency pre-hospital medical assistance. In closing, paramedics tell me to tell you, hands off our municipal ambulance services please. Thank you. Member statements? Member for Scarborough Centre. I'm here to say no to bullying. Last week from November 17th to 23rd was Bullying Awareness and Prevention Week. School boards and various groups across Ontario commemorated this very important week and held ceremonies and workshops that aimed to shed a light on bullying and stop bullies in their tracks. As a teacher, I have a long track record of involvement in anti-bullying initiatives. When I lived in Taunton, China, I organized my school board's first ever anti-bullying awareness week. When I served as the President of the Ontario Institute for Studies and Education Graduate Students Association, I served as an ambassador for International Day of Pink, a day against bullying that originated in Nova Scotia of all places when one male student saw another male student being bullied for wearing a pink shirt and he said it wasn't okay. Now as a mother of almost two, I am very keenly aware of the pressing need to ensure that bullying is eradicated in Ontario, in Canada, and across the world. And on this note, I must say how proud I am knowing that my riding of Scarborough Centre not only fought against bullying last week but does it every day. David and Mary Thompson held an anti-bullying workshop with suitcase theater last week. Winston Churchill Collegiate has put a student team in place that is reviewing their anti-bullying policies and revising them with the school administration. These are just a few examples but they really illustrate that schools are taking bullying seriously at every level. Students, teachers, and administrators are fighting together. As a government, we are also fully committed to being a part of this fight. We pledge to do everything we can to ensure that all students go to school and they feel supported, respected, and encouraged to be their best selves. So please join me and anti-bullying allies across our great province and country in standing up to bullying today and every day. Thank you. Member Statements, Member for Thunder Bay Atacocan. Thank you, Speaker. I'm happy to rise today in this House on behalf of the constituents in Thunder Bay Atacocan in Northern Ontario. As my Northern colleagues and I have pointed out many times, we do not believe this PC government is in touch with reality of living in the North. Many things that those in the South take for granted are not our reality. We have pointed out we have poor or no broadband internet or wireless services in many areas as this government moves towards digital online public services and mandatory e-learning. We have pointed out treacherous roads, conditions on our highways, only to be quoted data that ignores the above average fatality rates and that most of our highways are two lanes with no barriers. Our access to health care is also problematic. As we face an opioid crisis, we lack detox and treatment spaces. We lack mental health resources. The model for resources based only on population and that ignores our vast geography is flawed. We must travel long distances for specialists, diagnosis, treatments and follow-ups. This comes with a tremendous financial burden. I want to give a huge shout out to all the people who are donating to hearts at home who are raising money so heart and vascular surgery can occur in Thunder Bay. The Northern Health Travel Grant is supposed to ensure that people in Northern Ontario have reasonable access to health care. It is falling far short on that and needs to improve. Thank you. Member Statements and Member for Don Valley West. Thank you very much Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express concern about the increasing prevalence of e-cigarettes and vaping products among youth in Ontario. We know that e-cigarettes and vaping products have harmful health impacts, particularly on young people. These products have high levels of nicotine and substance which negatively impacts youth brain development and they also contain chemicals linked to cancer. There is a link between the use of these products and the development of lung disease and other serious health issues and that health link is becoming clearer every day. Despite these risks, use of these products by young people is increasing. Recent research from the University of Waterloo indicates that youth vaping is rising at an alarming rate in Canada and the US Centre for Disease Control has declared youth vaping an epidemic. The Toronto District School Board is calling on the government to address this growing health crisis in our schools. Among their recommendations are a ban on e-cigarettes until sufficient scientific research on their adverse health effects can be conducted, the removal of flavoured e-cigarettes from the market, additional regulations on the selling and restrictions on the advertising of e-cigarettes and vaping products and the provision of funding for schools to install vape detectors. Mr. Speaker, the information on vaping is coming fast and furiously. It is becoming an emergency and urgent issue. For the present and future health of our young people, I implore the government to consider these recommendations and take further steps to address this critically important issue. Member Statements, the Member for Mississauga Centre. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I rise to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution and the fall of communism in Eastern Europe. As someone with Czech, Slovak and Polish roots, the date of November 29th, 1989, is of utmost significance to me. For almost 50 years, an iron curtain had descended across Europe, separating the East from the West and subjecting Eastern Europe to years of brutal totalitarianism. In 1989, the people of what was then Czechoslovakia took to the streets to agitate, to end for the one-party communist rule. On November 17th, riot police suppressed a student demonstration in Prague. The event marked the 50th anniversary of a violently suppressed demonstration against the Nazi storming of Prague University in 1939, where 1,200 students were arrested and nine were killed. On November 20th, the number of protesters assembled in Prague grew from 200,000 the previous day to an estimated half a million. The movement was completely nonviolent. With nothing but words and nonviolent action, the people of Czechoslovakia ended communist rule in their country on November 29th, 1989. The Velvet Revolution, along with other movements, such as Polish solidarity, helped bring the iron curtain down once and for all. Mr. Speaker, today we watch others around the world fight for their freedom and democracy. So my message to this House is not to take our freedom and democracy for granted. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you. The Member for Toronto Centre. Thank you, Speaker. I rise once again in the legislature in solidarity with tenants across this province, tenants who live in constant anxiety about keeping a roof over their heads during the housing crisis. This government is doing absolutely nothing to protect tenants and has in fact taken the housing crisis from bad to worse. By slashing rent control, this government gave landlords a free pass to raise rent by as much as they want. We are seeing it in 22 West, the apartment building in Weston, whose residents received notice of rent increase of as much as 25 percent and who are still facing a rent increase of up to 10 percent. The government is propping up predatory landlords at the expense of everyday Ontarians. Make no mistake, Speaker. This is an attack on renters in this province. This government seems to believe that profits are more important than people. I commend the tenants associations who have worked together to assert their rights and stand up to landlord abuse. Under a government determined to gut their rights, organizing together has never been more important. That's why I'm hosting a tenants rights workshop next Tuesday, December 3rd, with the help of local lawyers in the community who work with tenants. Building tenants collective power is a priority for me in my office and I will continue to support tenants to learn and assert their rights, to form tenants and to hold landlords accountable. I encourage this government to do more for tenants and you can start by reinstating rent control. Thank you. Member for Mississauga Street, sir. It gives me great pleasure to stand in the House to speak a little about representing our government at the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Devji, who was the first Guru and founder of Sikhism, a poet, a religious teacher and a social reformer. His philosophy is the key to the creation of a harmonious society based on tolerance, peace, communal harmony, women empowerment and protection of natural resources. The visit to Punjab, India, enabled me to see firsthand significant input by society as a whole. The police, government, visitors and all of those involved to allow hundreds of thousands of people to peacefully visit Sultan Barlodi, which is said to be the place where he lived for 14 years. It is here that he gained enlightenment at the end of the 15th century. Aside from the spiritual part of my visit, I also met with officials, businesses and partners to discuss ways to work together to increase trade with India. Together with Minister for Delhi and MPP Anand, we saw how many companies wished to do business with us here in Ontario and we were able to talk with them in great detail about regarding our talent in the IT sector and products and architecture that we can be used in their infrastructure. At the conclusion of our mission speaker, I met with members of the Punjab dairy farmers and spoke of our great technology and farming techniques that they are looking to adopt. I look forward to a number of delegations that will be visiting us in the near future to look at investing in our great province. All in all, speaker, an excellent productive trade mission that will bring great results for us here in Ontario. Thank you. Member Statements, the member for Whitby. Thank you, speaker. For 64 years, the Whitby Chamber of Commerce has presented the Peter Perry Award to a person who has made significant contributions to the Whitby community. It's Whitby's most prestigious honour, speaker. On November 21st, at its annual Business Achievement Awards gala, the late James Michael Flaherty received the Peter Perry Award. I was honoured to be President, speaker, to watch my colleague and friend, the Honourable Christine Elliott, accompanied by two of her three sons, accept the award on Jim's behalf. In presenting the award to the Deputy Premier, Whitby Mayor Don Mitchell referenced many of Jim's outstanding provincial, federal and international accomplishments in public service. Speaker, as I listened to the Mayor's remarks, I was reminded of a speech that Jim gave to students at Western University in 2011, when he encouraged them to consider a career in public service. Public service is good for you, he said. You will have opportunities to change the world around you in varying ways and to different degrees, large and small. Speaker, Jim Flaherty did indeed change the world around him and will never forget all of his accomplishments. Never forgotten, I congratulate Minister Elliott and her entire family on Jim being Whitby's 2019 Peter Perry Award winner. Thank you very much.