 introduction of gas. It's now time for member statements and member for Timmons. Well Mr. Speaker you will know most of us that drive vehicles that the price of gas in the last 30 days has gone up about 30 cents a liter and Timmons we were paying about 90 98 cents a liter but about a month ago price of gas now is up to $1.30 and it is frustrating drivers beyond beyond anything that you can imagine it's almost palpable the price differential between southern and northern Ontario is as much as 20 cents a liter and this government's response is to blame the feds on the carbon tax. Yeah I agree the carbon tax is going to add four naps cents to the price of gas but you're responsible for the other 26 cents that quite frankly has gone up as a result of price gouging on the part of gas companies. We have a bill before this house in committee now that would allow us to deal with gas price regulation so that gas companies don't do what they're doing now. How do you explain 98 cent gas 30 days ago and $1.30 today other than the carbon tax which was four and a half cents the rest of it is the gas companies that are gouging us at the pumps. Mr. Speaker this government has got to do the right thing. If they want to blame the feds for a carbon tax and do that fight in order to help Mr. Speaker in the next election we get it they're doing the politics of it but there's a reality that we all have to deal with and that is gas companies are gouging us at the pump. There's a bill before committee now that will help us deal with it. I call on the government to do the right thing and call that bill. Member statements the member for Thornhill. Thank you very much Mr. Speaker and I'm very pleased to welcome today we have a whole group here of mentors and staff from it's called Youth Fusion in French it's Fusion Eugènez and it's a job creating charity program and on profit that industry supports and the private and the public sector support and it's so fantastic Mr. Speaker to hear the student mentors talk about how they're going into our schools and a meeting with kids new immigrant children marginalized kids children with autism and helping them on projects in robotics artificial intelligence even video game projects which I'm sure the kids really love and helping them to improve their math skills which is something we keep talking about in the government side of the house and we hear that there's mentors from industry who also are involved it's a program that started Montreal in 2009 and it's been here now for three years and I really applaud everybody and would encourage everybody to find out more about Youth Fusion I'm going to be posting on social media they have Twitter accounts they have Facebook accounts and to get in touch with the staff and to say that you want to support you want to get involved you want to donate you want your children's school to get involved and you want to encourage our children to be job ready for the next wave of jobs that are coming with this government for the people thank you Mr. Speaker thank you very much members statements I am pleased to tell you about a big change for a great University in Oshawa the University of Ontario Institute of Technology or UOIT opened its doors in 2003 but speaker through the years while UOIT has exceeded and establishing a reputation of excellence and innovation it has had a challenge to establish their brand so on March 27th UOIT introduced their new brand to stand out in the academic landscape it has kept the blue but now has a new bright spark of orange but more than the new look we have a new name UOIT is now Ontario Tech University Ontario Tech invites future students to discover what President and Vice Chancellor Stephen Murphy has called the best kept secret in Canadian higher education the University of Ontario Institute of Technology will keep its long name for official business but like Caltech is short for California Institute of Technology we now have Ontario Tech Ontario Tech's first historic all faculty convocation was in June of 2007 and now Ontario Tech has over 10,000 students 16,000 alumni seven faculties 56 undergraduate programs 37 graduate programs and 20 college University programs Ontario Tech extends the reach of their research and teaching and prepares graduates to excel in a global knowledge-driven economy I know Ontario Tech will continue to take on the future challenges we face as a society and find solutions to meet and exceed tomorrow's needs so congratulations on the new name Ontario Tech and we wish you and all of your students a bright and awesome future thank you very much member statements the member for Etobicoke Lakeshore good afternoon speaker one of the interesting things I've learned and I've met with some of the people in Etobicoke Lakeshore we have a strong craft brewing community and we actually have five craft brewers and soon to be six right in Etobicoke Lakeshore in fact Mr. Speaker at your recent craft beer tasting reception we had three competing brewers based right out of Etobicoke Lakeshore here representing my community which is which is wonderful and I'm sure you'll remember that the Premier and the Minister of Finance they joined me last August at another Etobicoke brewer cool brewer to announce Ontario's buck a beer challenge the in fact Mr. Speaker this Saturday you too can have the opportunity to experience some of the many brewers for yourself the people from Etobicoke Lakeshore and across Toronto will be participating in a Etobicoke beer run an eight kilometer run across South Etobicoke stopping at son of our some of our riding's amazing craft brewers participants will start at Big Rock Brewery making stops at Great Lakes Brewery Indy Alehouse and the Black Oak Brewing Company before finishing at Vaughn Bugle Brewing all without leaving Etobicoke Lakeshore proceeds from participation in this event will go to support the Canadian Mental Health Association which is a great organization supporting an important cause Mr. Speaker I want to wish the best of luck to all the runners and congratulate in advance all those who are successful finishing the race the success of Etobicoke Brewing companies and this community is a great example of Ontario is open for business and open for jobs and I just want to encourage others in this house and those watching that if you want to take a trip to Etobicoke Lakeshore and visit our breweries please come they're open every day thank you member statements the member for Hamilton West and Caster Dundas thank you Mr. Speaker I rise today in support of the thousands of students across Ontario who are walking out of their classrooms at this very moment these students are sending a very clear message that they will not remain silent as our public education system is callously gutted I stand in solidarity Mr. Speaker with my nieces Emily Mabel and Lily and in support of all the students in Hamilton West and Caster Dundas in support of all the students and their parents across Ontario who clearly see that this government for the people does not care to all the students out there today thank you for standing up for high quality public education you know you deserve so much better so much better than a government that takes away from you your education does not belong to one government or to one premier and to this conservative government who say that you the students are being manipulated by your teachers that you couldn't possibly have done this on your own I say well it would be a big mistake to underestimate you the students you are the people that are standing up for what's right so thank you for your phenomenal leadership your passion and your determination you are truly the leaders of today member statements the member for Ottawa seven thank you very much mr. Speaker and across Ontario April is be a donor month in support of organ and tissue donation awareness today there are over 1500 people awaiting a life-saving transplant here in Ontario and I'm encouraging all Ontarians to consider consenting registering consent for organ and tissue donation so one donor mr. Speaker can save up to eight lives and enhance the lives of up to 75 more through tissue donation interestingly the oldest donor is 90 years old so it's never too late it takes less than two minutes to register as an organ and tissue donor donor at online at be a donor dot ca so this Sunday April 7th is green shirt day across Canada in honour of the Logan Booley effect and Logan Booley as we all know and fortunately died in the Humboldt bush crash last year he was an organ donor and he saved six lives his donation inspired over 100,000 organ donations organ registrations across Canada so on Monday April 8th we'll all be asked to wear green in support of Logan and organ donation across the country I'd like to thank the Trillium gift of life network for the great work that you do we're very proud of you and for your continued advocacy in supporting organ and tissue donation in Ontario thank you member statements the member for Ottawa West Napaian thank you mr. Speaker back in November mr. Speaker I had the chance to table my first private members bill the caregiver recognition act in Ontario and I was tremendously pleased mr. Speaker that on second reading this bill received unanimous support across party lines mr. Speaker the first thing that this bill would have done or would do is to establish the first Tuesday in April as caregiver recognition day in Ontario and while the bill is still making its way through the legislative process I wanted to take an opportunity today in this first week of April to recognize caregivers and the incredibly important contribution that they make there's around eight million caregivers here in Canada and it's estimated that the economic contribution that those caregivers give to our health care system is valued at thirty billion dollars across the country caregivers are so vitally important to our health care our social services and we need to take a moment as legislators to recognize the enormous emotional physical and financial burdens that are placed on caregivers every day and consider how we can best support them so I look forward to the next phases on getting my private members bill passed into legislation so that we can work to improve the experience and lives of caregivers across our province thank you mr. Speaker statements the member for to miss coming Cochran today hundreds of students across my riding the to miss me Cochran are joining thousands of students across the province and protesting changes are being made by the Ford government and on behalf of them and rural students across the province they have some special concerns because in small secondary schools raising the class size is what's going to result is something called class stacking because there won't be enough students so you'll put grade nine academic and grade nine applied in one class and you might still not have enough students so you're throwing a grade 10 and what's going to happen then the quality of education will go down both students and appearance will notice that and they will want to go to a bigger school and then what will happen is the shop teacher will go and we will lose schools across rural Ontario another issue that's really tough for rural Ontario is when they talk about e-learning for credits well you know what the school bus can come and pick the student up at home and then bring him back home but you know what doesn't follow the student in rural Ontario affordable broadband speaker how can you say e-learning when there are students who have no access and pull these a to be a francophone vous vous combattez and French students you fight for education but also for your culture thank you thank you member statements the member for flamborough glamour thank you Mr. Speaker I'd like to take this opportunity to talk about the outstanding business achievement awards held by the flamborough chamber of commerce on Wednesday night in my riding each year the flamborough chamber hosts the OBA awards gala to honour and celebrate the very best in community service and business excellence in the communities that make up flamborough some of the award winners this year include Amy Robson who was named entrepreneur of the year Amy along with her husband Chris Hayworth own and operate the West Avenue cider house in Freelton whose cider won best cider in Ontario from 2014 to 2016 the Somerset orchards where the cider house is located has over 6,000 trees growing over a hundred different varieties of apples and pears and the winner of this year's small business award was M&M products quality home appliances their story is quite remarkable a business started by Mitt Meisner run out of the family home then his son Ward took over and today they celebrate 50 years of serving the community they've had some difficulties over the years but like most Ontario business owners they persevered and today the business moves out of the family home to a new location in Watertown Mr. Speaker in my role as parliamentary assistant to the Minister of economic development job creation and trade along with our government we are focusing on ensuring Ontario is open for business once again and I look forward to building a stronger relationship with the flamborough Chamber of Commerce great job member statements the member for Brampton West thank you Mr. Speaker it is an honour to speak on sick heritage in the species month of April which provides a chance to understand the history and the significant role the sick community has played in Ontario and and Canada and for us to become even more of a proud multicultural country Mr. Speaker we believe there are three duties that a sick must carry out Namjapna which is keeping God in mind at all times Kirt Karna that means earning an honest living and one check now which means shearing once earning with others this can be summed up in three words pray work and give Mr. Speaker the history and contributions of sick community sick Canadians and the journey it has been from the days when those early sick pioneers arrived in Canada to the present day with this nation stands tall as a leader for equality diversity and compassion sick community has made immeasurable contributions to building our province and this proud country in all possible ways Mr. Speaker the history of six in Canada is a story of compassion hard work persistence and progress so therefore I invite the entire house to join in the annual calca day parade to celebrate the birthday of calca on April 28 in Toronto please bring families and friends to participate and enjoy in this open public celebration thank you mr. Speaker that concludes our time for member statements this afternoon reports by committees