Children and Youth in Care Day in Ontario is just around the corner, and I’d like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the efforts of young people and their stories and experiences. This year’s #ForgetMeNot campaign will highlight the stories of young people and their resilience in overcoming obstacles. Children and youth in Ontario’s child welfare system deserve to be recognized and celebrated. This campaign is another way to remind local communities and government service providers that young Ontarians deserve to have critical supports in place, which is why our government recently invested $170 million over the next three years for youth leaving care through the new Ready, Set, Go program.

Speaker, children and youth are the future of this great province and this country, and we need to ensure that they are equipped with the tools they need to be successful.

It is also important to recognize the hard work of all the children’s aid societies and their staff—in particular, a special shout-out to my local Children’s Aid Society of Sarnia-Lambton, led by their executive director, Dawn Flegel, who will be with us later today.

As part of the #ForgetMeNot campaign, the Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies and Children’s Aid Foundation of Canada would like to invite all members to their reception today at 5 p.m. in room 228. I hope to see you all there.

I’d like to welcome, from the Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies: Nicole Bonnie, Ashleigh Egerton, Sean McGrady, and Samuel Ashirbekov.

Welcome to the House.

Speaker, I’d like to welcome the CEO of the Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies, Nicole Bonnie, and CEO of the Children’s Aid Foundation of Canada, Valerie McMurtry, to the Legislature this morning.

I’d also like to give a shout-out to Van, Rose, Samuel, Kaygan, Byanka, Troy, and Aidan, who were all part of the OACAS #ForgetMeNot campaign.

Welcome to Queen’s Park. I look forward to meeting you all later on this afternoon.