 It is now time for member's statements and I will remind the members, these are 90 second statements, not a second more. I recognize the member for Scarborough North. I'd like to thank Abbey Batten and the entire board of director of Scarborough's Somaliland Community Association in my writing of Scarborough Centre for inviting me to their ribbon cutting opening ceremony on Saturday, March 4, 2023. The Scarborough Somaliland Community Association is committed to addressing the unique needs of Somali community, including youths, seniors and people with disabilities, as well as supporting new Somali immigrant and refugee transitioning to life in Canada through provisions of culturally and linguistically relevant education, training and mentorship service. Cultural community organizations are community champions and play a pivotal role in meeting the short term settlement and long term integration needs of many immigrants and refugees. As we look to the skill immigrants to fill our labour shortage and grow our economy, I continue to support and advocate for the cultural organization in Scarborough Centre and across the province. Thank you for your countless contributions to Ontario's social, economic, community and political fabric. Thank you, Madam Speaker. Thank you. Member's statements, the member for Toronto St. Paul's. For the arts and culture sector, artists and cultural workers have been disproportionately hit by COVID and to be frank, it's not COVID alone. This government has chronically cut and underfunded the arts well before the pandemic, despite the fact that we can count nearly 30 billion ways in which arts and culture contributes to our GDP, not to mention the near 300,000 jobs the sector creates for our province. Make no mistake, committing to sustainable funding at or above the rate of inflation is key to the survival of our creative sector, a sector where most creatives weren't even able to get served during the pandemic, and most in live performance saw their careers go poof without notice. Most government funds for smaller art organizations tend to be targeted towards individuals and short term projects which does not help the organization build capacity for long term planning. That is why I'm demanding today that the OAC budget for the Ontario Arts Council remain at 65 million in the 2023 provincial budget. On behalf of every creative worker and community based organization in St. Paul's, we're pleading with this government. Do not cut the already strapped Ontario Arts Council budget again, especially with the work that they do for priority groups like deaf artists and artists with disability, artists of colour, francophone artists, indigenous artists and new generation artists to name a few. Speaker, visit any gallery, any museum, any theatre, any library, any art studio, the arts are the way of the most fight to save. Thank you very much. Members, statements? A member for Mrs. Saga Moulton. Mr. Speaker, skills empower people through financial independence, empower people, empower families, and empower families, empower communities. And this is how we empower humanity. And this is precisely the connection Canada from Mrs. Saga Moulton is doing. Breaking the cycle of poverty one family at a time through development of open environment that encourages French speaking immigrants to explore opportunities for career and entrepreneurship. Funded by our TF since 2020 through Braids on Call training program, Connecture has helped more than 90 women for marginalized community in peel to become certified braiders. Graduate braiders can earn decent money, setting them firmly on the road to financial security. Last week I had the opportunity to attend graduation ceremony as the new graduates celebrate the launch of their career. I witnessed the smile of confidence and the laughter of their successful future. I can still feel the music of their success in my heart. Mr. Speaker, this is a great example of skilled trade transforming lives. I would like to extend my sincerest thanks to Executive Director Rose Cathy Handy and Testoff and Volunteer at Connecture for supporting the Franco-Ontario community. Braids on Call is now encouraging trained braiders with entrepreneurial skill to attract more clients and become business partners to scale up. My best wishes for your contact. Thank you very much. Thank you. Member statements. Member for London Fanshawe. Speaker, I want to talk about a topic that's weighing on Ontarians minds. And that's the public health care system. And this government's making changes to decimate those services that people rely on. I want to share an email I received and this woman wanted to remain anonymous so I can't give her name. She says, I got a quote of $3,680 to do a cardiac surgery in a private clinic. If I don't want to pay, I have to wait 15 months to get the appointment at St. Joseph's Hospital. Where can I get help to find out other city hospitals wait times for cataract surgery? Speaker, those operating rooms are there. They're ready to take more people who need public health care for cataract surgeries. We need to fund those institutions that already have that infrastructure. Bringing a bill that's going to further privatize our health care system is wrong. It won't make a change to what people are requiring. The NDP has given us suggestions. So I want to give those suggestions back to the government so that they will consider those instead of further privatizing health care. Speaker, adequately funding hospitals, repeal Bill 164, expedite training and hiring international nurses create more nurse practitioners led family clinics. These are the things that are going to keep public health care public and they're going to have the quality of care that our constituents deserve and expect, not privatization of hospital and public health care services. Thank you, Speaker. The next member statement, the member for Scarborough Waging Court. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Our government's commitment under the leadership of the Premier and the Minister of Health to improve the quality of health care in Scarborough has begun to pay off. Recently, I had the pleasure of attending the groundbreaking of the North Pine Diagnostic Imaging Department at the Scarborough Health Network's General Hospital. The people of Scarborough have been waiting for 20 years for the state-of-the-art diagnostic imaging unit. I would like to commend the Scarborough Health Network team for this important achievement. This is the first of many groundbreaking projects in the Scarborough Waging Court and the Scarborough. Other health-related capital infrastructure projects such as the brand new Birchmont Grace Hospital and the Bridal Town Dialysis Center are in the various stages of planning and approval process. In addition to health infrastructure projects and the allocation of thousands of long-term care beds, our government is backing the opening of new Scarborough Academy of Medicine and integrated health at the University of Toronto Scarborough campus. This school will serve local communities in Scarborough by graduating physicians, nurses, PSWs, physical therapists, and other life sciences professionals. Mr. Speaker, Scarborough is not forgotten, borrowed anymore. Scarborough is getting the attention it deserves. Thank you. Thank you. Member statements? Member for Scarborough, Southwest. Earlier this week we had dozens of families of children with autism here at Queen's Park with the Autism Coalition who brought stories of the struggles that they face every single day and they wanted us to listen to those concerns. Families have been stuck in the vicious cycle of dysfunction of the Ontario Autism Program for years. Parents wait for years to get an invitation and then keep waiting for their assessment and then they keep waiting for their funding to be released and then they wait to access the programs that the child actually needs and then when they find access to that program, sometimes their funding deadline finishes or they start again. This is the vicious cycle that they go through every single day here in this province speaker and this is the reality. The program is set a target of registering 8,000 children into the program but the reporting from Global News shows that we have only registered 888. If the program applications were to stop today and there was no new applications, we would need 66 years to get through the program, the wait list. Speaker, I cannot even imagine the pain some of these parents are going through and some of them come to my office and the tears I cannot tell you the horrible situations they are going through. So I implore this government to take a hard look at the program, invest the funding that's necessary and make this program. Thank you very much. Member's statements. The Member for Ajax. Mr Speaker, I rise today to say it's an honour to represent the people of Ajax. This past weekend, my colleague MPP McCarthy, MPP Koh, MPP Quinn and Minister Bethan Falby and I had the pleasure of celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Durham Ability Centre and its first accessibility awards entitled Unlocked Potential, hosted at Deer Creek Banquet Facility in Ajax. The accessibility awards is an event to recognise people creating change that re-imagined how people with accessibility live, work and play. I want to congratulate all the nominees and winners but a special congratulations to Sanjay Nathan, who was honoured with the Jim Flaherty Award. This award is presented to a person who has shown leadership in a significant contribution towards promotion development and advancement of accessibility and inclusion. Sanjay was involved in a car accident at the age of 15 that led to him paralysed from the chest down. Rather than seeing this as a barrier, he pushed on to receive a degree in software engineering and founded a company called Exxon Technology, through which he developed a driver-assisted program that uses facial recognition and voice recognition to activate distinct function of vehicles, making driving easier and more accessible. This remarkable young man is a true community champion and nephew of MPP Kanapathy. I would like to personally congratulate Sanjay on this award and your tremendous contributions to breaking down barriers. Member for Orleans. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. About three weeks ago, the residents of Orleans were awoken by an enormous jolt. The walls and windows of their homes were shaking and a few moments later, the near-constant sound of emergency responders racing somewhere in the distance. On February 13th, a home under construction in a new subdivision exploded and it destroyed four homes and damaged many more. The explosion could be felt for kilometres and I've read that it was heard as far away as the village of ours. I'd like to thank the emergency responders in the city of Ottawa for their quick response and decisive actions that morning. Two people were rescued from the rubble with serious injuries and several others were hospitalized, including children. Residents of nearly 30 households were displaced for several days. When you see the images of destruction, it's hard to understand how nobody lost their life. I'd like to commend my city Councillor Catherine Kitts. She and her team were on site right away ensuring residents were being taken care of, then neighbours were being provided the information they needed to ensure that those displaced had somewhere to sleep and receive a hot meal. There will be several important lessons to be learned from what happened. Lessons for home builders in securing their sites, lessons for first responders, and lessons for this government and the lack of supports to help those who no longer have a home to move into. Thank you, Mr Speaker. Thank you. Member for Hastings. Thank you, Mr Speaker. As we were watching the news from the United States, we're seeing the painful reversal of years of advances in civil rights. We can be thankful that that's not the case here in Ontario, but we can never take for granted that basic human rights will not be trampled. We all must remain diligent. I want to share with this House a poem that was written just after World War II. You may have heard it by Martin Nijmaler. Then they came for the Socialists and I did not speak out because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. And then they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. And then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me. Speaker, earlier this week, I had the pleasure of hosting a group of people from the Greater Napa-nee Pride Committee. These are dedicated members or allies of the LGBT community. And they came here to show that like everyone else, this is their house. I'm forever grateful that in this house and in this government, all of our constituents are represented. Yesterday was International Women's Day and March 31st will be International Trans Recognition Day. I ask all of the members of this house to celebrate our differences, to celebrate our diversity with respect and humility. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Member Statements, the Member for Mississauga Streetsville. Speaker, we observed and celebrated the many accomplishments of women in this house and around the world. I would like to take this opportunity to mention two women who had a profound influence on my life. First, my mother. Widowed and left to raise six children on her own. The resilience, work ethic and kindness of my mother was what was instilled into me. I was the youngest of six siblings and was also probably the most challenging of all of my siblings. My biggest regret in life is that she passed away before I was first elected. I know that she was extremely proud of me and she continues to bless me from above. The second influence in my life was my constituent and former Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion. In 1998, when I hosted a national conference on spousal abuse, she spoke about the increase of people fleeing abusive situations and opened up yet another shelter in Mississauga. Since then, I've heard from women all over who have said they would probably be dead if it wasn't for those shelters. True leadership. I've talked about the two most influential women who helped shape who I am, but now I'm fully influenced by my two granddaughters, Tara and Tia, ages four and two. To see the world through their eyes, to make decisions as a parliamentarian that not only affects us but to build homes, hospitals, highways and communities to make sure that our future generations... Thank you. Thank you very much.