 therefore it's time for member Siemens, the member from Leeds-Grenville. Thank you very much speaker. I rise to again implore this government to take action to help those suffering the debilitating effects of Lyme disease. Two years have passed since MPPs unanimously called on the government to get serious about Lyme testing and treatment. Since then we've heard lots of promises from the Minister of Health and long-term care. However, for those suffering in Leeds-Grenville and across Ontario, his words ring cruelly empty. If I sound urgent speaker, it's with good reason. In 2014 the Leeds-Grenville and Lanark Health Unit reported the highest rate of Lyme disease cases per 100,000 in Ontario, nearly 17 percent of total cases. Yes, there have been positive steps regarding awareness and prevention, but increasing populations of ticks and longer seasons of exposure mean all the awareness and the prevention won't keep people from being bitten and getting sick. It's these people our healthcare system is failing. Two years on, we're no closer to the testing and treatment available in the United States or in Europe. And with all of its resources, Ontario should be a destination for those seeking cutting-edge treatment. But rather than working with our doctors and healthcare providers to champion the fight against Lyme, this government picks fights with the medical community. On behalf of those who have lost so much to this terrible disease, I call on the Minister to act now and restore their hope. Thank you very much, Speaker. Thank you. Further member statements from member from Niagara Falls. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise today to speak about an issue that is incredibly important for the men and women who work on the skilled trades in Ontario, removing schedule 16 and 17 from Bill 70. The same schedule that undermines the work our tradespeople do and remove health and safety standards from their workplace. The skilled trade workers in our province are a crucial part of our economy. They're good jobs that provide so many of the services we rely on. Now the Liberals have decided to undermine their work. They want unskilled workers with no certification to do the same work as our tradespeople. They want further inspections for health and safety in a workplace. They are fine with making this province less safe just so corporations and developers can save a few bucks. This is serious. People could die. Workers shouldn't have to worry about whether their workplace is safe or not. Mr. Speaker, it seems to me that what the Liberals want is to make our workplaces less safe and our workers less sure about their jobs. What kind of message is this sending to our young people that want to pursue the skilled trades as well as our young women and men? Well, Mr. Speaker, I can tell you what the message is. It's simple. All the hard work you put into mastering your trade and becoming a certified doesn't matter. What does matter is ensuring businesses can use your non-certified workers just to save a quick buck. Instead of attracting skilled trade workers, instead of stripping away the value of their certificates, instead of making the workplace more dangerous for workers, instead of that, let's support our workers in the province of Ontario. Let me get straight to the point. Schedule 16 and 17 are wrong. It should be removed from the bill. Thank you very much. The further member statements, the member from Ottawa itself. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Over the last 10 years, there's been a creed at every hospital in Ottawa. And as part of that effort, I, along with my colleagues, have been working with the Ottawa Hospital on the development of a new civic campus. The new campus is critical to the future healthcare needs of a growing city and our aging population. There are serious concerns that have been raised with the selection by the National Capital Commission of Tony's Pastry as the only recommended site. Amongst these concerns are access, cost to the public purse, and risk of lengthy delay. Local decision making is critical and my colleagues and I fully support the Ottawa Hospital and its community board as it responds to the NCC in moving the new civic forward. Mr. Speaker, again, it is critical that this project not be put at risk of significant delay. Our Ottawa caucus has worked hard to secure the funds for the next phase of planning and we are anxious to get going. Mr. Speaker, it's important that we get this right. And I know that I speak on behalf of all of my colleagues in Ottawa in saying that this recommendation needs to be reconsidered. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Thank you. Further member statements? The member from Bruce Gray, Owen Sound. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. It is an honor to rise today in recognition of a worthy cause in my riding of Bruce Gray, Owen Sound. Members of the Gray Granite Club have presented a $25,000 gift for cancer services endowment at the Owen Sound Regional Hospital. The earnings on this fund will support the purchase of new diagnostic and medical equipment to support future cancer care in my constituency. Since the Gray Granite Club was originally established in 1875, its members have always been active and generous supporters of their communities. They previously organized 13 fund spills to raise more than $138,000 for new medical equipment at the local hospital. And when they weren't helping raise money for local needs, the Gray Granite Curlers were competing in the zone, regional and provincial competitions, bringing home multiple victories and demonstrating that they could compete with Ontario's best. Their latest gift, which will help doctors, nurses and other medical staff provide care in new ways and introduce new technologies, was also their last as the members of the Gray Granite Club met one last time on October 1, 2016 to wind down their club. In the words of club president Ron Hopper, and I quote, In many ways, this gift reflects the spirit of Gray Granite members. As a new member, you soon learned that fundraising for the community was as important as curling, and both allowed you to meet new friends from across our region. All of our members spent untold hours volunteering for various events, always with a smile. There is no doubt that their generous donation will have a lasting impact on local patients and their families for many years to come. A sincere thank you to Gray Granite Club members for your excellent service and for helping build healthier communities in Gray and Brews. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Member from Nicobel. Thank you, Speaker. Our hospital in Sudbury has given layoff notices to 36 hardworking, mostly women, many of them single parents, whose job it is to do the laundry for our hospital. Why, Speaker? Well, because the Ministry of Health wants our hospital to do more with less. Our hospital is left with no choice for fear or repercussions from this Ministry, who is pushing shared service organisations no matter the cost to our community. So starting this April, a shared service organisation in Hamilton will be doing our laundry. It is not the first time that shared service organisations come under fire. You'll remember in 2012 and 2013, 1,212 people received diluted chemo drugs. I was part of the committee that studied this scandal, and we found that the cause of this monumental error was the shared service organisation. We recommended that shared service organisations be made transparent and accountable, that they be covered by the broader Public Sector Accountability Act, the Public Sector Salary Disclosure, that they be subjects of audits by the auditor general and that the rebate and value add—that's a fancy word for kickbacks—be discontinued. None of that has happened, Speaker. So I urge the government to do the right thing. Keep those 36 jobs in Sudbury until the government acts upon those very modest accountability and transparency measures for shared service organisations. This way, we can all see where the money goes. Thank you. Thank you, Mr Speaker, and I'm delighted to rise this afternoon to speak about the launch of the Tour for Humanity and my community of Davenport. The Tour for Humanity is an initiative presented by the friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre for Holocaust Studies. It is a mobile classroom that educates students in a highly interactive environment. This unique project designed to initiate discussion on critical human rights issues is now in its second year of operation. As a proud Portuguese Canadian, I'm pleased that this particular Davenport tour, the organisers, included in their curriculum a story about the Portuguese hero Aristides de Souza-Mens. Aristides de Souza-Mens was one of the great heroes of the Second World War. As the Portuguese consul stationed in Bordeaux, France, he found himself confronted in June of 1940 with the reality of thousands of refugees outside the Portuguese consulate attempting to escape the horrors of the Nazi war machine. In all, Souza-Mens saved 30,000 people, including about 10,000 Jews, by issuing visas to Portugal. It has been characterised as the largest rescue action by a single individual during the Holocaust, and he has also been recognised by the Yad Vashem in Israel as the righteous one. I am thrilled that students, teachers, families and friends in Davenport will learn from this tour for humanity and get an opportunity to learn about this wonderful Portuguese hero who saved the lives of so many and that this tour will empower students to raise their voices and take action against hate to make the province and the world a better place. Thank you. Thank you for the member status, the member from Prince Edward of East East. Thanks, Speaker. Back on September 27th, the Minister of Energy told us that the government was going to move away from large-scale renewable projects. He said in a speech yesterday that he was going to be technologically agnostic on new power that comes online. What we've known all along is that there are a number of projects that weren't included in the LRP2 that are still at risk of going up and continuing that long-standing liberal tradition of hiking hydro rates. One of those is in my riding in Prince Edward County. It's the WPD project that's been planned for the South Shore. Now what we know is that these projects are supposed to have a five-year milestone operation date. Given that WPD was signed in 2010, we shouldn't even be talking about this project. But there have been extensions and appeals, so we're here almost two years after what was supposed to be the drop-dead date for this project, except we don't know when the drop-dead date is because the government won't tell anyone. However, the Minister will claim that they have too much generation and then let the OEB issue an extension to WPD on October 20th of this year. Respectfully, Speaker, the Minister's got to pick a lane here. Either we have too much generation, as he stated back in September, which means he can send a directive to the OEB, retracting the extension that they granted to March of 2017, or he never intended to get out of the large-scale generation game, and he's playing hydro shell games again. I'm asking that the Minister direct the OEB to retract the extension, granted to WPD October 20th, or his power promises are just more liberal hot air. Thank you. Thank you, Speaker. Thank you. I'm delighted to recognize the Mentoring Junior Kids Organization for their recent Ontario Trillium Fund growth grant. The MJKO was founded by Miranda and Ibrahim Kamal, and it is a charitable organization that promotes positive, healthy lifestyle choices through mentoring and leadership training. MJKO teaches our youth to be community champions through physical fitness such as skipping, non-contact boxing, and endurance training. Miranda and her team of coaches teach kids about healthy food choices, believing big dreams, and understanding the importance of volunteerism. I recently joined the MJKO and the MLSE Foundation and Boxing Canada in their new reign alongside with Toronto Police Service 14th Division at their new facility for a ribbon-cutting ceremony. There was a free barbecue provided by Enbridge Gas, and we were joined by the Toronto Raptors mascot for what a truly exciting moment for us all. This $374,000 grant will fund four additional MJKO-administered projects and will allow 1,500 new kids under the age of 18 to access programming. I congratulate MJKO on this terrific win for our youth and our community. Thank you, Speaker. Very nice. Sorry, further member states, we have one more. The member from Thornhill. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker, and I just want to start by congratulating my colleague Raymond Cho, the member from Scarborough Rouge on receiving the Korean-Canadian Heritage Award. I went to the ceremony. It was very exciting and it was for his public service and a contribution to the Korean community here in Canada for the last 30 years. So let's hear it for Raymond. We all love Raymond. 25 years, City of On, where I live, and on October 25th, 25 recipients of the Order of On, and it was a fantastic ceremony, fantastic evening, really gala evening by Mayor Bebalaqua, and I just want to list who received the awards. John Emondola for Media and Communications, Carlo Baldassara for Philanthropy, Avi Ben-Lolo, who we just heard the member from Davenport speak about, Friends of Simon Wiesenthal for Equity and Diversity, Franca Damiani-Carrella for Health and Wellness, Sam Ciccolini, who I know well, for Philanthropy, also Mario Cordellucci, Philanthropy, Nordin for Not-for-Profit, Marie Fiorellino Di Poce for Public Service, Julian Fantino, former MP and Cabinet Minister for Public Service, Isabella Ferrara for Public Service, Hannah Godefa, who's just a teenager for Not-for-Profit, Sandy Keshin for Accessibility, and for her establishment of the Rena Foundation, Gus Longo for Business, and you know, everybody in Vaughan loves to shop at Longos, Dominic Mancuso for Arts and Entertainment, Sharnette Martin, who I know well for Education, and she founded the Vaughan African Canadian Association, Caravan, and so many other things, James Maynard for Public Service, Nick Popolo for Business, Vivian Ricci for Philanthropy, David Rocco for Arts and Entertainment, Bob Santos for Accessibility, Juliano Todaro for Philanthropy, Gary Vosberg for Public Service, Nicholas Voduras for Health and Wellness, Peter Wixen for Public Service, Daniel Luzanotti for Not-for-Profit, very famous with the United Way, thank you so much Mr. Speaker. Thank you, I thank all members for their statements. It's now time for reports by committee.