I’m very humbled to always serve the members of Barrie–Innisfil, and I’m always proud to see the incredible volunteers we have across our region.

This past weekend, I was able to celebrate some of those volunteers at the town of Innisfil, where we paid tribute and thanks to Jennifer Richardson, who helps with Connecting Innisfil, and many individuals, like Helen Kindy, who helps with COPE Service Dogs; Anne Kell, who helps with countless initiatives like Pitch-In for Innisfil, which is an annual cleanup event we have, the Rotary Club, Friends of the Library, and Christmas4Kids.

We were also able to thank Dave Cockburn and Serge Singh, who help with Crime Stoppers.

We were able to thank Brian Jones from the Gilford United Church and his colleague Rev. Linda Butler, and so many more.

In Barrie, we’re also very proud to have Barrie Families Unite that operates on 200 volunteers per week regularly—volunteers like Laurie Clarke, Linda Wait and Linda Sallans, who are always there, constantly helping the organization.

We also have the Red Cross, which counts on volunteers like Brian Miller, who is helping with many of their programs throughout Simcoe county, through the connector volunteer program.

If you’re listening today and you’re looking to volunteer, we have so many organizations across the region, whether it’s the YMCA, whether it’s Christmas4Kids, Habitat for Humanity, and so many more.

I encourage everyone to continue to volunteer—and for those who have, thank you so much.

It’s my pleasure to represent the residents of Barrie–Innisfil in support of Bill 93, Joshua’s Law (Lifejackets for Life), presented by the MPP for Carleton, and I want to thank her for reintroducing this bill. I want to thank MPP Norm Miller, who I learned quite a lot from, since we represent a similar region of the province. He well knows that I’m surrounded by Lake Simcoe, the jewel of our region, but with Lake Simcoe comes responsibilities like water safety. I want to thank both those members.

The fact that this bill will save lives on the water—as many people get out to the boats on Lake Simcoe for the great summer season and take their kids out, they can have the peace of mind that their children will be saved by this law that requires children under 12 to wear life jackets. So I wholeheartedly support this private member’s bill on behalf of the residents of Barrie–Innisfil, because it will save lives.