 Thank you Madam Speaker. I was delighted to participate in a number of events, to celebrate Black History Month and pay tribute to the contribution of the black community in Canada, and to applaud their impressive achievements. This year's team was called Black Excellence, a heritage to celebrate a future to build. We are proud of the black community and their essential role in raising Canada's global stature to such high standards. The impact of Canada's black community in education, medicine, art, culture, public service, economic, development, politics, human rights, and so many other fields are too immense to mention it. Their sacrifices made Canada a beacon of democracy and human rights, and paved the way for other persecuted people from all over the world to find refuge in Canada and get a new lease on life. We are grateful for your inspiring vision and influence. In addition to joining my Scarborough colleagues and organizing our own celebration in Scarborough, I attended the Plumbers and Pipe Featers Union and International Union of Painters and Allied Traders celebrations at Queens Park. I also attended events at the Taibu Community Health Centre, Tropicana Community Services, and Afro Global Television. Thank you very much, Madam Speaker. Thank you very much, Speaker. Under this Conservative government, Ontario's justice system is in shambles. Everywhere access to justice is denied routinely. Ontario courts rank dead last in case backlogs and wait times nationwide. The Conservatives play politics with justice, appointing unqualified cronies, including a gun lobbyist to select their next round of judges. The lays and denials of justice ruin lives. Criminals walk free and the innocents suffer behind bars. This isn't just about funding, it's about setting priorities. The government's budget ignores the crisis in our courts. This government releases budget two days ago. I scoured the budget. I was looking for funding in our courts, and it was not there. Not once did it mention bail, pre-detention, or court backlogs. It's easy for Ontario survivors to give up when their own government has given up on them. Today in the Chamber sits two extraordinary women, Kate Alexander and Emily Agar, who have individually endured violent crimes against them, only to have their cases tossed out because of court delays. Devastated, they watch their queues walk free and back into the community. Kate and Emily are here to demand tangible solutions, starting with the budget, not hollow assurances from the Premier and the Attorney General. We must thank Kate and Emily for their incredible strength for coming here today and for sharing their painful stories yet once again in hopes that this government will actually come up with the solutions and fix our broken courts. Speaker, the number one issue that I hear from the resident of Mrs. Saga Malton is affordability. With increase in inflation, mortgage interest rate, economic uncertainty, it is resulting in stress to the residents. And then on April 1st, the upcoming 23 percent increase in the carbon tax by the federal Liberals intensifies this burden, creating a vicious cycle of rising costs that affects every aspect of daily life. Increased gas prices lead to higher costs for everything, from groceries to borrowing, resulting in inflation, that further strains household budgets. While Ontario is diligently working towards 20-30 greenhouse gas reduction targets with emissions already above 26.1 percent declining since 2005, initiatives like Green Steel Projects exemplify our commitment to sustainable practices. This project alone will mitigate millions of tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually, equivalent to removing almost over 1 million cars from the roads. Therefore, Speaker, it is imperative that all MPPs send a clear message to their MPs, asking them to stand with their residents and less prioritize affordability and sustainability without further burdening hardworking families. Tell federal government to consider its approach and scrap the burdensome carbon tax now. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you very much. Member Statements. The Member for Glendale Bay, Superior North. Universities and colleges are incredibly important institutions. They are primary sites of research, and they are where the young, and not so young, go to learn critical thinking and specific subject and occupational knowledge. Tragically, post-secondary education in Ontario has been underfunded for the last 20 years at 43 percent less than the national average. Even with the injection of $1.3 billion divided over three years amongst our 60 public post-secondary institutions, Ontario will still be dead last. To be clear, no one wants to see tuition increased. Domestic tuition is far too high and making up the difference by charging international students exorbitant fees has been, frankly, shameful. Far too many students domestic and international have to take on part-time jobs just to survive when they should be able to focus their time and energy on learning. On the faculty side, class sizes keep going up as do the number of faculty on short-term low-wage contracts who do not have the time to support students outside the classroom. Students and faculty are being squeezed on all sides and the effects are showing up in mental health crises. The Ford Conservatives are undermining all our futures. Research cannot flourish and students cannot reach their full potential when our colleges and universities are collapsing. We can and must do better. Understatements, the member for Hastings, Lennox and Addington. Thank you and good morning, Speaker. Speaker, a few weeks ago I had the chance to attend a funding announcement at Bancroft Fitness. This $71,700 capital grant from the Minister of Tourism, Tourism Culture and Sport through the Trillium Fund allowed them to upgrade their HVAC system to ensure a safe exercise environment and allow more comfortable exercise temperatures for their brand new hydrotherapy pool. Bancroft Fitness is a unique environment. It operates as a not-for-profit small-town style gym. Residents of Bancroft and the surrounding area can join the gym for a minimal membership fee, which includes typical group classes like yoga, meditation, high and low impact fitness and more. But, Speaker, what's truly unique about this facility is the connection between health and fitness. Championed by Dr. Carolyn Brown over 20 years ago, she had a patient that was suffering from soft tissue pain after a car accident, and she realized that she couldn't use medicine to help that patient, so she partnered with a kinesiologist, Angela Carrera, to create a new fitness center. Bancroft Fitness promotes healthy fitness habits for individuals of all needs and all activity levels in direct partnership with the Bancroft Community Family Health Team. This is the first fitness facility in Ontario that partners directly with an Ontario Family Health Team. They provide programs like cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation, but they provide exercise, education and counseling. This is a health care innovation, so I want to express my congratulations to Bancroft Fitness on the improvements to your facility and my thanks to the Ministry of the Ontario Trillion Fund for their support. Thank you, Speaker. Thank you very much. Member Statements, a member for Parkdale High Park. I rise today with great concern over the inaction and provincial defunding of urgently needed supervised consumption services in Ontario. This will result in increased overdose deaths, undue burden on emergency response services, and will deny the rights of access to essential health care interventions and wraparound supports for people dealing with addiction. In 2018, when this Conservative government came to power, they arbitrarily kept funding to only 21 sites. Six years later, despite overwhelming need and local support, only 17 sites have been approved and funded. Now even these handful of sites are under imminent threat of closure due to lack of funding. Communities across this province are declaring states of emergencies over this crisis. Sites are operating through the sacrifices of burnt out frontline workers, keeping doors open through piecemeal donations. This is for basic life-saving services and estimated 3,644 drug-related deaths just last year in Ontario, and over 20,000 deaths under this government's watch. The Conservative government is literally abandoning the most vulnerable and marginalised people in our province. The overdose crisis is impacting many in my community of Parkdale High Park and people across Toronto. But you know what, Speaker? It's worse in northern Ontario, in southwestern Ontario. It's smaller cities that are hardest hit by this crisis. Many communities that Conservative MPPs represent. These are preventable deaths. The government must stop ignoring this crisis. It's not going to go away unless you do something about it. Thank you. Thank you very much. Members' statements. The member for Bruce Gray onside. Thank you, Speaker. Colleagues, I want to update you this morning on the ongoing exciting developments in the world of medical isotopes. As members know, for over half a century, Canada has been a world leader in the development, production and use of life-saving medical isotopes in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer while also tackling some of the greatest health sciences challenges, including equipment and PPE sterilisation, fighting the Zika virus and pharmaceutical advancements. In 2023, the Canadian Nuclear Isotopes Council launched Isotopes for Hope, Canadian leadership now more than ever, with the goal of doubling Canadian production of isotopes by 2030. The world needs more Canada is core to the CNIC's message as they have unique capabilities, people and infrastructure for our Canadian isotope ecosystem. They recently launched the first Isotopes for Hope podcast series to share perspectives from Canadians who are inspiring leaders, turning this vision into a reality and delivering important progress to people around the world who are counting on Canada as a global isotope superpower. Last week, this important message was brought directly to Queen's Park at an excellent medical isotopes reception. Members from Kitchener, South Hezbollah and Miss Saga Centre have been very active in this exciting work and we're there to share their message. This ongoing work is absolutely excellent for Ontario and we look forward to ongoing leadership and collaboration right here in Ontario to promote medical isotopes. Thank you Speaker. Member Statements, the Member for Canada, Carleton. Thank you Speaker. Based on the overwhelming scientific consensus and lived experience, I know that climate change is real and I believe it is our responsibility to act, otherwise it will be our children and our grandchildren who will be dealing with disaster after disaster. Speaker, it is a shame to see another budget that does nothing about the climate. This government loves to point fingers but refuses to lift a finger to do something themselves. The only climate measure they've taken, the cancelling of cap and trade, has been a disaster. It cost the government three billion dollars in penalties and it shifted the cost of carbon from corporate polluters to the people of Ontario and extra three hundred dollars a year. This government doesn't care about the climate and they don't care about affordability. What will it take to have this government take the threat to the health, safety and security of Ontarians seriously? This recent budget has done nothing to help Ontario families with the mounting crises in affordability, health care, housing or the climate. This government does nothing but point fingers, write letters and blame others so they can continue to reward wealthy connected corporate insiders at the expense of everyone else. Thank you very much. Member statements. The member for Oakville. Thank you very much speaker. April 1st as we all know is April Fool's Day but you do know what is not funny? On April 1st the residents of Oakville along with the rest of the province will wake up to life being more expensive and more unaffordable. Shame. My constituents in Oakville have reached out to me concerned with the rising cost of living especially the rising federal carbon tax. Just last week I had residents come up to me at a local grocery store and mention how much the carbon tax hurts them. They are feeling the extra costs for basic activities such as driving their kids to soccer practice. At the Oakville Meals on Wheels grant recognition program event I was at a week ago residents were really appreciative of the funding they received but very upset and worried by the rising tax hike coming on April 1st. For those volunteers the hike for gas makes each delivery to vulnerable people that much more expensive. I am proud that our government under the leadership of our finance minister and Premier Ford are supporting families and businesses by proposing to extend the gas and fuel tax cuts until December 31st 2024. We know every dollar helps and this gas tax is another way to help keep the costs for Ontarians down. But that's not all. Renewal on license plate renewal fees and stickers that save vehicle owners 3.3 billion and we launched the one fair program which will save commuters in Oakville $1,600 per year. As April 1st is around the corner we continue to call on the federal government to scrap the tax. Thank you. Member statements the member for Windsor to come see. Thank you speaker and I was truly proud to see that Windsor and to come see were once again front and center in our government's affordably focused budget. As this house is aware in 2017 the then Liberal government announced planning funding for a new regional acute care hospital would be stopped in its tracks with the 2018 budget so the contrast couldn't be clear. Premier Ford committed to seeing the Windsor Essex regional acute care hospital and this budget sets out the hospital procurement for 2025. This budget also builds a new Banwell ECO interchange right at the boundary of Windsor and to come see a project that's successive governments of all stripes outright ignored for 40 years until this government. This budget also develops the future lows on Parkway 401 interchange supports thousands of new jobs at Nextar and Bobeek invest in local broadband gross access to primary health care and long-term care and says yes to our new local schools including the Beacon Heights public school and Eastview Horizon public school. These investments make our region stronger than ever and I want to say thank you to Premier Ford and the Ontario government for doing the heavy lifting for Windsor Essex that just never happened under any p representation and Liberal governments and I encourage all of my Windsor colleagues to support these great investments in the budget. Thank you very much that concludes our member's statements for this morning.