 It is now time for member statements and I recognize a member from Kingston and the islands. Thank you so much speaker and I rise today to recognize local cinemas and to speak to the difficulties that they are facing in this pandemic. In Kingston our local independent cinema the screening room is a gem of our community. It's our last independent downtown cinema that we have and it's a place where I've had many fabulous evenings with families and friends but speaker these small businesses like so many others are facing unprecedented financial hardship if not outright closure because of the inadequate supports available to them as well as other artistic venues. These are all venues that have worked hard to operate within the conditions put forward by public health but who have simply seen their attendance and revenues drop too much to be able to continue. My office has received many emails from a campaign named Save My Cinema which are advocating for several reasonable supports including working with all levels of government to extend the commercial tenant eviction ban for six months so that they can get through the last quarter of this year and the first quarter of next year and still have the projectors playing movies when when we get to the spring and we hopefully are through this pandemic speaker. Aside from the government providing additional supports I want to encourage everyone here and everyone out there who can afford to do so go buy a gift certificate make it a stocking stuffer you don't have to go to the cinema right away but make that purchase now to try and give them some of the revenue that they are going to need to get through this winter and then they will have a welcoming space for you when you go back in the spring. Thank you speaker. Member statement. Member from Carlton. Thank you Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker I wanted to speak today about a very special group of students in my riding of Carlton. It's from St. Stephen Catholic Elementary School in Stittsville and it's Mrs. Shannon O'Brien's five C class who actually won the food donation championship in their school because they donated collectively 288 items to the local Stittsville food bank. They reached out to me with a thank you for the letter of congratulations that I sent them and we ended up connecting and I was actually very pleased that this past Monday I had a virtual meeting with the class over zoom and they got to ask me about what it's like to be an MPP and we chatted a little bit and it was actually a lot of fun and very interesting. It was also very inspiring to see how engaged these young students were in politics and in getting involved in their community. So Mr. Speaker I just wanted to let them all know that I'm so proud of you. Congratulations for all your hard work and you're not getting just the letter but I've also signed scrolls for each and every one of you which you will be getting very shortly and Mr. Speaker on top of that I just wanted to say that not just this class but I think all students in Carlton are so inspiring and it shows that Ontario has a very bright future ahead of us. Thank you. Thank you very much. Further member statement member from Niagara Center. Thank you Speaker. Since the start of the pandemic I've been hearing from registered practical nurses also known as RPMs and other health care workers about the impact the pandemic has had on them. We all know that the coronavirus has put pressure on our already overburdened health care system. RPMs with Niagara Health say that prior to the pandemic they already faced staff shortages. With more patients and less time RPMs report their caseloads are far above the standard rate over 50% of the time. They're gravely concerned that with very little time to spend on patient care rushing from one emergency to the other puts them and their patients at risk. Jake an RPN at Niagara Hospital says that he has been exposed to COVID twice. He's been unable to see his family or his friends due to the risk. Another RPN with the Niagara Health system said two units adjacent to hers went into an outbreak. Despite the increased work the risk of exposure and the emotional impact of having to be away from family and friends RPNs have received no pandemic pay. The government has not even made sure their workloads are manageable. RPNs continue to receive depressed wages despite the increase in their work and exposure. Speaker this House cannot call health care workers like RPNs heroes one day and disregard their work the next day. Workers providing critical services during this crisis deserve to be compensated at the level that recognizes the essential work they're doing. It's the right thing to do. Let's treat RPNs with the respect they deserve now. Very much for the member statement. The member from Kitchener. Well thank you so much Mr. Speaker and last week I had the opportunity to announce that our government will be providing Waterloo region with 6.5 million dollars in social services relief funding. It'll be used to support the region's plan to create modular homes on surplus lands and almost half will go to supporting the service agencies that operate our local emergency shelters. A huge thank you to the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing for supporting the work that these organizations do. And I want to take a moment and recognize one of their more recent initiatives. The House of Friendship and Inner City Health Alliance members have been developing the quote unquote shelter care model Mr. Speaker. And they've been doing this for over a year now and or just about a year now and they launched it during the pandemic. Shelter care combines health care and shelter by giving those experiencing homelessness access to 24 seven shelter care for their mental and physical health. And the outcome speaker have been a great success. Overdoses have been reduced by 50 percent and EMS calls have decreased by 75 percent. And in the past six months 50 men have been housed with none of them returning back to shelter to quote the House of Friendship Housing Services Director. This way of shelter has proven so successful that we are not going back. I look forward to sharing the continued successes of shelter care of my colleagues and supporting this ongoing work in my community. Thank you. Thank you very much. The member for Oshawa. The Premier and the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing are using a tool called a minister's zoning order to bulldoze the planning process across communities. Minister's zoning orders were once rare. But in the last eight months under the cover of covid this government has quietly issued more than the last government issued in 15 years. The MZO's allow the government to exempt certain projects from public consultations environmental reviews and other planning rules and they cannot be appealed. The minister should not excuse me. The Premier should not be using a pandemic as cover to issue dozens of MZO's to pave over farmland and irreplaceable provincially significant coastal wetlands like Duffins Creek and Pickering. We've already lost an estimated 90 percent of wetlands across the GTA. Speaker Duffins Creek is a beautiful area with swans and birds and wetland critters to keep you company. I've taken my paddle board for hours exploring the creek and then paddling out onto Lake Ontario. The creek winds and winds through cattails and grasses and takes you into stands of trees that arch low across the creek draped with fruited grapevines like a scene out of Narnia. It is a favorite local place to go for families, cyclists, picnickers and kayakers. But the minister has made a deal to pave paradise and put up a warehouse. Wetlands are awesome. They serve as filters and essentially the lungs of our ecosystem mitigating flooding, sequestering carbon, filtering runoff, purifying drinking water and protecting the quality of the lakes they guard. No warehouse will do that. The province can't just replace significant wetlands or make it up to folks. And if the government's plan is to take all of the trees and put them in a tree museum, they should not expect communities to let them get away with it. Thank you. There's a lot of chatter going on in the house. I'd ask everybody to quieten down. Please. Member statements. The member for Ottawa South. Mr. Speaker, and tomorrow is the start of Remembrance Week in Ontario, which is recognized by initiative from the member from Simcoe Gray, who kindly asked Cherry De Novo and myself to co-sponsor his bill. It's something I'm very proud of. And I want to thank him again for including us. Remembrance Day is going to be different this year at the Pearly and Rideau Veterans Health Centre in Ottawa South. We won't be all together as we are every year. Linda and I won't be there with my father-in-law Lauren Hooper, a veteran and a resident of the Pearly. He passed away almost one year ago. So, Speaker, war touches everyone, everyone's family in some way, somewhere. In Linda's family, her uncles fought overseas in World War II. James Kavanaugh flew 36 flights over Germany, including the bombing of Dresden. Bill served on the Acina Boy. Neil served in the Army overseas. They all made it home. But with very deep, lasting scars. One brother didn't. Robert Ainslie Kavanaugh died at Dieppe in August 1942, along with thousands of other young men. My mother-in-law, Yvonne, who was closest to Ainslie, she dearly loved him. She kept his picture on her dresser for 75 years, looking at it every day. She never forgot him. Never. She had a deep, lasting scar. So we now have his picture in our house, along with his letters home. And thanks to her, we'll never forget him. The sacrifice that he made, and that's why I mentioned him today. It's our duty to always remember those sacrifices that are made on our behalf, lest we forget Nunu Suvientro. Thank you, Speaker. Member Statements. The member for Markham Thornhill. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is an honor to rise today to speak about the importance of organ and tissue donation. Mr. Speaker, over 1,600 men, women, and children are currently waiting for a life-saving organ transplant in Ontario, including 29 people in my riding, Markham Thornhill. Last week, I met with the Trillium Kept Up Life Network to discuss how we can improve donor registration rate across the province. Speaker, numbers are shocking. Every three days, someone in Ontario dies a preventable death waiting for a transplant. More than 90% of Ontarians are in favor of organ donation. Yet only one in three Ontarians have actually registered to become a donor. One organ donor can save eight lives and enhance the life of up to 75 others through the tissue donation. Mr. Speaker, Ontario has one of the best facilities in the world for organ transplant. Everyone has the potential to be a donor, regardless of age, medical condition, or sexual orientation. Mr. Speaker, I would encourage every eligible Ontarian to speak with their family about becoming a donor today and help save someone's life. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Member Statements. The member for Nickel Belt. Thank you, Speaker. The private lab system in Ontario always had some customers issues, but since the pandemic, the problems have increased to the point that they literally leave seniors out in the cold. Yolande Jeannac tried for several weeks to get into life lab, but they had no record of her requisition. When she finally was able to book an appointment, she worried about how long she would have to wait because there is always a big crowd waiting outside life lab in her community. Elaine Beauchamp left her home in Gaugamma, drive all the way to Isildas, so she would be there when Life Lab opens their door at 8am. After driving for two hours and waiting outside in the cold for another hour, the life lab employee told her they had no record of her appointment. Elaine Martel from Capriol, some people would know him, called Life Lab a dozen time. No one ever picked up. Finally, his daughter Shelley booked him an appointment online. Picture this speaker, an 85-year-old man who just had surgery, has to wait outside in the cold, in the wind, in the snow, with no place to sit. He cannot wait in his car because there's no receptionist at the valkyrie and life lab side. Just a lab technologist that comes to the door asking for the next appointment. If you're not there at the door, you lose. Life Lab 1800 number is either busy or they just keep you online. Nobody ever picks up. We tried reaching the light line to let them know to file a complaint. It is impossible to talk to them. The level of customer service from this private lab is not acceptable, Speaker. Winter is coming in Nickel Belt and it's cold outside. The Minister has to look into this to make this better. Thank you very much. Member Statements, a member for Don Valley North. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I want to pay tribute to an incredible woman, a Canadian icon, an activist, I'm proud, a great food culture pioneer, Dr. Anita Stewart, who passed away last week. Speaker, back in 2003, when the U.S. placed sanctions on the export of Canadian beef due to Macau disease, Dr. Stewart responded by holding the world's longest barbecue, her successful initiative evolved into Food Day Canada, a wonderful event that continues to take place every summer. Speaker, Dr. Stewart provided the inspiration and tremendous support for my first private member's beer, beer 163, entitled the Food Day Ontario, Food Day Canada in Ontario 2020. I still recall during the second reading, she and many of her friends were right there in the member's gallery supporting my beer. Speaker, I'm humbled to have had the privilege to work closely with Dr. Stewart, who was not only a respected cheerbrother in her field, but also a very dear friend to me and many others. Speaker, I extend my deepest condolences to Dr. Stewart, families, colleagues, and friends. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you very much. Member's statements? Member for Hastings, Lennox, and Annington. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the member's day approaches, my thoughts always turn to great individuals who gave their all for all of us. One such here was John Weirfoot from my hometown of Maydock. Many here will know the name because he never stopped serving. I would like to pay tribute today to John, who served with the Canadian Chaplain Services attached to the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry. Reverend John Foot was the first Canadian Chaplain to win the Victoria Cross. He ministered to his troops during the blistering battle of Dieppe on August the 19th, 1942, through eight ungodly hours of death. He carried soldiers from the beach under heavy fire to safety. He assisted medics and tending to the wounded. In the next day, incredibly, he refused to evacuate and surrendered to the Germans so he could continue ministering his charges who had become prisoners of war. But freedom came back to him three years later after the Allies took back Europe. But John Weir was just not done serving. Educated at Western Queens and McGill, he still had more to give here back home. The Lieutenant Colonel Foot served as a decade in this chamber from 1949 to 1959 as the progressive conservative MPP for Durham. His boat supported the building of the first Toronto subway, expansion of Ontario universities, and the launch of Highway 401. I think of John when I'd ride to Toronto each week through Durham and along the 401. John was a giant wherever he strode and we all served in his shadow lest we forget. Thank you very much. That concludes our member statements for this morning.