It’s an honour to rise today to share with the Legislature important news from my riding of Sarnia–Lambton. I am extremely pleased to inform the members of this Legislature about a recent announcement that will provide much-needed new funding from the Ontario government for the province’s Homelessness Prevention Program and Indigenous Supportive Housing Program. The county of Lambton will see an increase of over $2 million, bringing total Homelessness Prevention Program funding for this municipality to more than $5.6 million. That represents an increase of over 57% over the previous year’s funding.

I had the opportunity to speak with Valerie Colasanti, the general manager of Lambton county social services, about the importance of this critical new funding. Ms. Colasanti said the increased provincial investment would help Lambton county provide more support to keep people in their homes, and also allow the county to do more long-term planning.

The additional funding will be spent on initiatives such as helping those who live in shelters move into permanent homes. It could also help pay for mental health and harm reduction supports to keep precariously housed individuals in their homes. And it could also provide rent supplements to make rent more affordable.

All of us in Sarnia–Lambton are grateful for this important investment in our community.

We’re going to commit to families in Ottawa and all regions of the province that their funding will increase through an almost $700-million GSN funding enhancement—2.7% this school year—to meet the needs of children now and into the future.

We’re also going to hire 2,000 more front-line teachers. The member opposite calls it a platitude; I call it a person, a leader in front of a child, making a difference on reading, writing and math. That’s going to help.

I hope the members opposite will support us as we hire 2,000 additional front-line educators in schools across Ontario.

Today marks Yom ha-Shoah, the solemn commemoration of the brutal murder and discrimination endured by the Jewish people during the Holocaust. Almost every Jewish person out there has a story of a family member who endured the Holocaust, including myself.

There’s a park that borders my riding dedicated to a well-known Holocaust survivor, Felix Opatowski. At 15, Felix risked his life and smuggled goods out of Nazi ghettos in exchange for food for his family. After being deported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp in 1943, he joined the Polish underground as a runner and later helped plan an attempt to demolish the camp’s crematorium.

Not long ago, I attended the premiere for the Legacy Portrait Project documentary, where Holocaust survivors spoke of their experiences with their grandchildren. These conversations filmed in the documentary capture a moment in time, a glimpse into the individual triumph of each survivor, having prevailed over adversity by building families and finding love and joy after the Holocaust.

One in three students in Canada believe the Holocaust was fabricated or exaggerated, and 42% of students have explicitly seen an anti-Semitic incident in their school.

I’m looking forward to September of this year, when the new Holocaust curriculum will be officially launched in schools all over this province. Learning and listening to these stories of the Holocaust is crucial because those who fail—

A few weeks ago, I was privileged to join members of Hamilton Police Service on a ride-along. Unfortunately, many people in Hamilton are suffering from addictions issues, so I wasn’t surprised that all but one of the calls we responded to that night involved a person under the influence of either drugs or alcohol. What did surprise me was the level of compassion displayed by police when they interact with these people. Here are a few examples:

Police prevented a man who was dressed completely in dark clothing, walking straight down the middle of a dimly lit street, from being hit by a car. Police convinced him to go to a shelter and actually drove him there. He could have been killed that night and an unsuspecting driver’s life forever changed.

I watched as police, along with paramedics, de-escalated a family crisis involving a mother and a troubled youth. The youth was eventually calmed and taken to hospital for treatment.

I witnessed wellness checks of our homeless population and police handing out canned good to people who knew them by name.

But I also saw the dangerous side of policing. At the beginning of the shift, I had taken a selfie with a young rookie cop I knew, Marco Arif. By the end of that shift, he was off to hospital with serious facial injuries that he received during an altercation on the job.

I want to thank Constable Arif, Sergeant Scott Hamilton, and all of the women and men who work for Hamilton Police Service.

Now, more than ever, we need our police, and now, more than ever, they need our support.

Meegwetch, Speaker. Good morning.

Remarks in Anishininiimowin.

This morning, I would like to share parts of an open letter from Norman Shewaybick from Webequie First Nation:

“On April 7, 2023, the home that my family has been occupying since 1999 burnt to the ground. It housed eight of us in total (and yes, we had working smoke alarms). Luckily, we were all able to self-rescue without injury before the fire spread. The house was engulfed in flames within 20 minutes. All we had was a measly fire extinguisher. We lost everything.

“Last fall, another fire left families homeless because there are no fire services to call.

“In Webequie, there is no fire service, there are no enforceable fire codes, there is no fire truck or a fire station.

“While we live in poverty, our lands are being valued in the trillions and mining is being aggressively pushed to promote Canada and Ontario’s future prosperity.

“It is preposterous that legislation like the Ontario Mining Act is fully applicable on our lands but not the Ontario fire protection act or Ontario fire code and that governments have not already found a way to work with ... First Nations in Ontario.”

There is so much more to Norman’s letter. I do not have enough time to share it all this morning, but it’s an important letter.

Meegwetch for listening.

I rise this morning to stand up for every resident of Brampton North or Ontario who drives a car, heats their home, or shops at a grocery store. It’s on their behalf that I join my caucus colleagues in calling on the federal government to end their carbon tax.

For many families in my community—and this may come as a shock to downtown Toronto progressives—access to a car is a necessity, not a luxury. For families in my community and across Ontario, heating their home with natural gas is a necessity, not a luxury; grocery shopping to feed their family is a necessity, not a luxury. Maybe some progressives will argue that those families could stockpile blankets to stay warm in the winter or just shiver a lot. It would appear that those same progressives suggest that those families simply fork out more money for their groceries. They call it “doing our part,” or “civic duty.”

I’ll tell you what, Mr. Speaker. I’ll do my part by voting in favour of measures that cut taxes on gas, food and other necessities.

And it’s the civic duty for every member of this House to stand up for Ontario families and demand the federal government scrap this ridiculous carbon tax.

Speaker, 12 days ago, an ice storm knocked out power in parts of Ottawa once again, including large parts of Ottawa West–Nepean. For the second time in less than a year, the power was out for multiple days, with some residents waiting up to four days to have power restored. And once again, residents in apartments and condo buildings were trapped in their own homes for multiple days with no access to food, water or medical care.

Lynn Ashdown, who uses a wheelchair and has now been trapped three times in her home for multiple days, was so struck by the trauma of the situation that she threw up as soon as the power went out.

Residents of apartment buildings like the Minto-owned building at 1343 Meadowlands were once again reaching out to my office to plead for help as they were trapped without water and elevators.

These residents cannot fathom why the government would not support legislation that could easily prevent situations like this from happening.

It is absolutely shameful that the government is siding with big real estate investment trusts against people with disabilities, seniors, parents of small children, and others with mobility issues who are experiencing extreme hardship and trauma every time the power goes out.

We need legislation to protect the safety and human rights of every Ontarian in an emergency.

Shame on this government for making people like Lynn and the residents of 1343 Meadowlands suffer repeatedly.

Ontarians were recently blessed with a glimpse of what summer has in store, and while it didn’t last as long as any of us would have liked, it’s a very good reminder that warmer days are just around the corner.

Warm weather brings about a great deal of activity in our communities. Neighbours are gardening and spring cleaning. Cities are sweeping away the remnants of winter. The coming of spring and summer also means more people moving about their communities.

In Orléans last week, the roads and sidewalks were full of joggers and cyclists dusting off the cobwebs of winter and getting some much-needed exercise and vitamin D.

Soon the parks will be open to welcome our children, and more and more students will be walking or biking to school. With all of this activity, it’s important that we, as motorists, pay closer attention to our surroundings and that we remind ourselves to slow down through the neighbourhood, become mindful of the ball bouncing down the driveway into the road. As much as we might try to teach them, children won’t always be on their highest guard and know all of their surroundings. It’s incumbent upon us to be extra-vigilant around them.

Everybody should be encouraged to enjoy the outdoors and the wonderful opportunities spring and summer provide. Let’s make sure everybody can stay safe while they do it.

I’m honoured to rise today to celebrate a strong community leader and a constituent in my riding of Scarborough–Rouge Park, Rosemer Enverga. Rosemer is a caring community leader and a force of nature who has inspired and touched the lives of many.

Rosemer is the wife of the late Senator Tobias Enverga Jr.

The Enverga family have been known for their leadership in the community and for promoting Filipino art and culture, while supporting the most vulnerable. In 2008, Rosemer co-founded the Philippine Canadian Charitable Foundation with her late husband to support community initiatives, including the Pinoy Fiesta and Trade Show Toronto. As temporalities leader, Rosemer’s dedication extends to the Philippines, where PCCF and the Archdiocesan Filipino Catholic Mission have provided over $600,000 in medical supplies to hospitals and helped construct houses for those in need. These initiatives are rooted in their strong belief in family, community and faith.

Rosemer is also a recipient of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal by the Governor General of Canada for her service in Canada and for the Filipino community.

I want to congratulate Rosemer for continuing the legacy of her late husband and their lifelong commitment to charity.

I am truly proud to have Rosemer and her family in the Ontario Legislature today.

Welcome to the Ontario Legislature.

I beg to inform the House that, pursuant to standing order 9(g), the Clerk has received written notice from the government House leader indicating that a temporary change in the weekly meeting schedule of the House is required, and therefore, the afternoon routine on Wednesday, April 19, 2023, shall commence at 1 p.m.

From York–Simcoe, Nicholas Boutsis; from Scarborough–Rouge Park, Dominic Cadotte; from Burlington, Senna Chan Carusone; from Eglinton–Lawrence, Claire Cross; from Dufferin–Caledon, Katherine Demczur; from Guelph, Frederick Funk; from Brampton West, Mridul Goel; from Oshawa, Sanskrati Goyal; from Newmarket–Aurora, Liam Gunning; from Oxford, Leonard Hobbs; from Beaches–East York, Lazaros Kasekas; from Niagara Centre, Randall Marsh; from Markham–Stouffville, Maya Morales; from Pickering–Uxbridge, Christopher Naassan; from Etobicoke–Lakeshore, Cole Okrainec; from Mississauga–Streetsville, Kundanika Pingali; from Waterloo, Akshitha Puttur; from Lambton–Kent–Middlesex, Mackenzie Rankin; from Cambridge, Olivia Vermet; and from Vaughan–Woodbridge, Sophie Vine.

Please join me in welcoming this group of legislative pages.

Applause.

I would like to welcome Michau Van Speyk from the Ontario Autism Coalition.

It is my pleasure to welcome representatives from the UHC Hub of Opportunities that provides supports and services to people in Windsor and all of Essex county: CEO June Muir and supervisor Marianne Moore.

It’s good to see you back here at Queen’s Park.

It’s my pleasure to welcome representatives from Farm Fresh Ontario joining us today in the galleries. I encourage everyone to stop by their reception this evening from 5 until 7 in the dining room.

Thank you for joining us.

I’m pleased to welcome to the House today Steve and Christine Wright and Mary Ann and Nathan Peel. Steve is chair and Mary Ann is director of Howick Mutual Insurance. Steve and Christine are from Belmore, and Mary Ann and Nathan are from Bluevale. There might be a couple of family members up there, as well.

I’d like to welcome a few people to the House today: Justin, Sarah, Adrian, Charles, Frank, Steve, Alison, Trevor, Lachlan, Martin, Stephanie, and Craig. They’re here for the Good Roads conference. We had some other visitors this morning for breakfast, but they had to go for delegations.

Thanks for coming.

I’m delighted to welcome Pamela Sertl and Lori Schisler of 360°kids from my Richmond Hill riding, as well as First Work representatives led by their executive director, Akosua Alagaratnam, sitting in the public gallery.

Speaker, 360°kids was named one of Canada’s best charities by Maclean’s magazine in 2020. It helps youth overcome crisis and transition to a state of safety and stability.

Welcome all to Queen’s Park.

To reply, the Minister of Education.

The Minister of Education to respond.

I’d like to wish a very, very warm welcome to June Muir and Marianne Moore from the Unemployed Help Centre of Windsor Hub of Opportunities, who are here participating in the First Work advocacy day today. I had a great opportunity to meet with them earlier today.

On behalf of MPP Jones, MPP Leardi and myself, thank you for all that you do for the betterment of our community.

I thank the honourable colleague for the question.

Mr. Speaker, let me be clear: There is absolutely no room whatsoever in our system for individuals, entities or organizations that either willfully or through neglect fail in their duty of care towards children. Every single child in our province, whether they’re in care or not, deserves the right to live in peace and safety.

I’m glad to be able to share that all three organizations that were at the centre of the Ombudsman report have accepted all 58 recommendations from the Ombudsman. It’s critical that all 58 recommendations need to be implemented swiftly so that something like this never happens again across this province. And while none of these recommendations are directed towards the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services, we will nonetheless use this report to inform the continuing work of redesigning child welfare across the province.