 We'll now go to the minister, sorry member statements from Prince Edward Hastings. Well thank you speaker and you know that I love hockey and you know that this is the inaugural season of the Belleville Senators in the American Hockey League but this weekend is a very special weekend in Belleville. The Rogers Hometown Hockey Tour is facing off in downtown Belleville this weekend right across from City Hall. The two-day celebration features free hockey themed events for the whole family. Saturday's festivities run from noon until six and Sunday started one. Highlights include autograph signings by Belleville born former NHL gold tender and Calder trophy winner Andrew Raycroft and Belleville Bull scoring sensation ex-NHLer played for the Leafs for a while, Kyle Wellwood. There's also going to be a parade of champions to honor Belleville's proud hockey history and we do have a tremendous story to tell Mr. Speaker and it'll be on display this weekend. Of course the Subin family, the famous Subin family, all three boys played hockey with the Belleville Bulls, PK credits his time playing for the former Belleville Bulls as a key factor in his development and both of his brothers Malcolm and Jordan also played for the Bulls. Malcolm's a star right now with the Vegas Golden Knights who have taken the NHL by storm. You're going to see some highlights if you watch the Rogers Telecast on Sunday night and you may even hear a familiar voice calling some of those PK Subin spinaramas during that broadcast. We've got a lot of great NHLers that are from Belleville as well, Andrew Shaw with Montreal, Brad Richardson from Vancouver, Nick Cousins plays for Arizona, Derek Smith, Calgary, Alan Kline, the New York Islanders. The pregame show features Ron McClain and Tara Sloan, make sure you tune in, 7.30 and some great music by that famous band, the Trans Canada Highwaymen. Looking forward to Rogers Hometown Hockey in Belleville. Member from Timmons James Bay. Thank you very much Mr. Speaker. We have to take this occasion to say a little something about all our friends who have come from schools across Ontario in order to find out what this place is all about but more importantly Mr. Speaker they're going to take your chair and they're going to take my chair and they're going to come here and they're going to have a debate and they're going to talk about the issues that are important to people across this province from the perspective of where they come from and they're going to find out as we do this chamber is all about doing is what right for the people back home. Sometimes we get caught in the hyperbole of this thing sometimes hyperbole I learned that word last week yeah hyperbole last week I learned that word but my point is we find out that at the end of the day we're all people that come to this place for essentially the same reason and that is that we're trying to serve our constituents the best of the weekend we're trying to move public policy ahead in a way that makes sense to us yes we have differences of opinions conservatives new Democrats and liberals look at things from a different perspective but that's okay that's what democracy is all about it's about making sure that those ideas come forward that there is proper debate and that there's action on those debates politics is the art of the possible of being able to make a difference and every day that you come to this place and every day that you wake up in his great job as MPP you have an opportunity to make a difference in somebody's life and I've got to say there's no life like it and I'm very lucky to have done it for 28 years change seats everybody's change seats the member from your typical center typical center thanks very much mr. Speaker speaker last spring GTA officials at Pearson Airport revealed that they were considering permanent changes to flight pass along the north-south runways at Pearson Airport and this would have meant a significant and permanent increase to the number of flights over a number of communities including mine in Etobicoke Center to me this would have been unacceptable as it would have massively increased the number of flights the amount of noise over our community while doing nothing nothing to reduce airplane noise for people across our city or improve airport performance from the very beginning speaker I have made it clear that I will do everything possible to advocate for my community and fight against this proposal and I have I've attended community meetings I've advocated with GTA and government officials and have provided many updates to my community most importantly however the GTA is eager to build a transit hub at Pearson Airport that requires provincial funding and support and so I have repeatedly made it clear that I will not support the government of Ontario providing funding or support of any kind for the transit hub at Pearson if the GTA moves ahead with its plan to redistribute flights over our community on a permanent basis and I have great news what recently the GTA announced that they will not be permanently altering flight pass over the next five years of our community now while this is good news speaker our work is not finished we'll have to monitor the GTA's plans in the years to come to see if they change but this outcome would not have been possible without the efforts of MP Boris Yosnevsky the Community Alliance for Air Safety the Marklin Woods Homeowners Association and those who attended meetings in our community to advocate for this rest assured that I will continue to advocate to ensure the GTA works in collaboration with our community and does not permanently shift flight pass over a total cost member from Chatham can Essex thank you very much speaker this past family day was a fitting day to be present and address a large crowd celebrating the grand opening of the Chatham Hope Haven in my writing of Chatham can Essex Hope Haven is an emergency shelter for homeless men in my writing as a non-profit organization it helps homeless men with hygiene food a safe and non judgmental environment providing warmth from the cold and food for nourishment program director mr. Joe Simpson and pastor Morris Cullier in his new beginnings ministry receive no government funding to keep these men safe at the moment they can only allow a maximum of 10 men to stay overnight because of a lack of funding to upgrade their fire alarm system they need $30,000 once funding is secured they will be able to provide overnight accommodations for up to 40 men now because of this they welcome donations of food clothing and hygiene products the shelter also depends on the help of volunteers striving to improve the lives of those in need within our community you volunteers are always welcome many people on the fringe of society are estranged from their families they may feel disconnected and unappreciated they may feel like they have no safe place to go and many suffer from mental illness or even abuse the fact that the Chatham Hope Haven has been successful shows the power of civic action and volunteerism it speaks volumes sorry it speaks volumes about the generosity of ordinary people and their capacity for self sacrifice Chatham Hope thank you that was the third time I remember from Kitchener Waterloo thank you very much Mr. Speaker our public libraries provide extraordinary value to communities yet because of a 20-year-old provincial funding freeze they are struggling to provide the services that people count on in my community the Waterloo Public Library and the Kitchener Public Library have called for increased funding after the public library grant in Ontario was cut by approximately 40% in the late 1990s despite past and present advocacy efforts the funding has never been restored local libraries provide a vital public service people rely on the WPL and KPL for access to the internet programming and community interaction and for many citizens Mr. Speaker libraries address the issue of isolation for vulnerable populations just last year KPL increased the number of cardholders by 20% they established a new digital space and increased their social media engagement by 34% and WPL also continues to modernize by offering program programming like outdoor summer jazz concerts English conversation circles and estate planning I'd like to commend the WPL and the Kitchener Public Library for their excellent work they have strong leaders in both of those libraries and I hope that the government will join me in recognizing the importance of libraries as a vital public service by lifting the provincial funding freeze the Waterloo and Kitchener Public Library has had both shown that having fun isn't hard when you've got a library card thank you very much Mr. Speaker member from Eglinton Lawrence thank you Mr. Speaker I hope that all members across the legislature are doing something to support Black History Month in February in their writings Black Ontarians have helped build this great province and city and they deserve a little bit of respect during Black History Month and I hope that the young students are here from across the province are doing something for Black History Month in their school because if you don't know your history you're never going to be able to respect the people around you in Eglinton Lawrence next Thursday we're going to be doing our annual Black History Month and we're going to be featuring local Black artists the artists that we're going to be featuring is Adrian Sadaway Hales who is an incredible artist who has undertaken great works on 10 story buildings in Toronto you can see his work at Youngett College you can see his work on Eglinton where with spray cans paint he paints these incredible renditions of our local history and so this Thursday at BME Christchurch St. James which is the oldest black congregation in Canada we will be hosting our annual Black History Month so I encourage people to support their local artists whether they be black red or white but we are going to be supporting black artists this Thursday at Christchurch BME please honour our black Ontarians this Thursday remember from Sault Ste. Marie thank you mr. Speaker a recent statistic in Sault Ste. Marie suggests that there are over five there are five overdoses per day within my community alone there is a perception that the opioid crisis is restricted to large urban centres there is a perception that this crisis affects only marginalised people these perceptions are wrong the opioid crisis affects all groups and has become an epidemic in smaller cities across Ontario and Canada as a whole these communities particularly those in northern Ontario are struggling with poor demographics economic challenges a lack of growth and a general sense of hopelessness these conditions have paved the way for the opioid crisis that we presently find ourselves in hospitals and municipal agencies have limited resources to address these concerns we need to allocate greater resources to combat addictions and mental health we need to create and foster education initiatives to prevent the spread of addiction we need to implement measures to limit the production of opioids and we need to lobby the federal government to make amendments to the criminal code and the control drugs and substances act in order to denounce and deter those persons within the supply chain of these addictive addictive and often life threatening substances it is imperative that we find a way to work together regardless of our perspective political stripes through all levels of government to come up with solutions to resolve this crisis that is destroying families and taking the lives of too many people across our province in our country here time for petitions is over sorry member statements sorry two more okay I'm sorry the member from Oshawa no Ottawa South thank you very much Mr. Speaker this is kindness week in Ontario and it was almost a decade ago that the member from Ottawa Center put forward a motion that passed unanimously to create it and last Friday I was joined by my colleague the minister the minister of infrastructure to kick off kindness week in Ottawa so I'd like to thank Dan Greenberg a core village the caring and sharing exchange and all the volunteers for all they do to support kindness week and kind Ottawa and I'd like to say congratulations to CTV's Terry Markot on receiving this year's kindness award for his work in the community he received the award from Rabbi Volka the father of kindness week and proud to say that they are both my constituents I'm privileged to represent the writing of Ottawa South and Ottawa South families from 125 countries have chosen to make it their home they speak 90 languages and there are not many places in the world where that happens and it works we live together work together learn together our children play together and there's a glue that binds us together and one of the primary ingredients in kindness is kindness and it's important that we recognize and celebrate that so mr. Speaker happy kindness week member statement member from Halliburton Corridor Lake's Brock thank you mr. Speaker I rise today to address an urgent issue in the writing of Halliburton Corridor Lake's Brock yesterday correction officers at the Central East Correctional Center in Lindsay left their posts as part of a refusal to work action because of the unsafe working conditions that they face on the job correctional officers in Lindsay have been subjected to 14 assaults at the hands of inmates just this year this is not the first time that CECC Lindsay staff have raised the alarm about working conditions but sadly every time something like this happens at this facility the provincial government stays silent in January I met with the local corrections officers as well as other staff at the jail to learn about what they face on a day-to-day basis what they told me is that staff are often outnumbered their workloads are overwhelming and the facility space itself is completely inadequate the provincial government has a responsibility to ensure safe working environment for our corrections officers but they are failing at that job enough is enough mr. Speaker this government needs to act now to protect our correctional officers and to address the broader systemic issues that have led to this crisis in corrections they should be focused on practical solutions like hiring additional officers and building new facilities to address overcrowding which we on this side of this house have committed to doing I hope they will finally listen to the pleas from the correctional officers in my writing and fix the mess they have created