I rise today to speak on the matter of a private member’s bill concerning Garrett’s Legacy Act (Requirements for Movable Soccer Goals). This is a bill which I believe offers a reasonable and considered approach to an issue of significant importance.

The bill was introduced and named after a Napanee youngster, Garrett Mills, who died in a tragic mishap in the spring of 2017. While the bill has been presented in the House multiple times, it has not received royal assent, and I am happy to facilitate this conversation further into committee and the government. David Mills, Garrett’s father, knows nothing can bring his son back. However, he has said that getting the bill reintroduced and eventually passed will certainly help.

As a parent and as a grandmother, my heart and my condolences go to the Mills family. What happened six years ago was heart-wrenching, and together with the entire NDP caucus, we are keeping your family in our minds and in our hearts and in our prayers. We are sending you our love, and we hope that this tragedy never, ever occurs to another child in Ontario again.

Drawing from the rich history of dialogue in this chamber, I’m reminded of the words of Nelson Mandela, who once said, “There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.” This sentiment is as relevant now as it was then, especially when we consider the safety of our children, the future of our province. This powerfully underscores the moral and societal obligation we have as adults to ensure the safety and well-being of our children at home, at school, within the community and especially in sports.

Garrett’s Legacy Act is a bill that is a response to a tragedy, a tragic accident that took the life of a young boy and a young child named Garrett Mills. His legacy, however, is one that can provide safety and assurance for all children who participate in the beloved sport of soccer across Ontario.

As we debate this bill, let us remember that at the heart of this legislative endeavour is the memory of a child whose life was cut far too short and the family who had the courage to turn their grief into advocacy. The bill’s main provision, which is to establish safety standards for movable soccer goals, is a reasonable step towards the goal of child safety. This is not an overly restrictive measure, nor does it impose burdensome regulations on sporting organizations. Rather, it asks us to take reasonable precautions to prevent avoidable accidents from happening again.

There are those who may argue that the measures proposed in this bill could prevent challenges to small sporting organizations. This is a fair concern, but cost does not always have to lead to a stalled process. While responsibility and accountability are the cornerstones of good governance, this bill encourages responsibility not just at the governmental level but also within our community organizations. It asks everyone to play their part in safeguarding our children.

It is vital—I cannot overstate this piece—to make sure that the government will be required to do their proper due diligence with the amateur and sporting non-profits across the province that maintain these facilities to ensure there’s no undue cost. While I recognize that the member opposite who is proposing this legislation cannot include funding in this type of legislation, I will publicly muse that it might be reasonable that the ministry commit to community consultation and consider a type of reserve or additional measures funding to offset any costs so that organizations or parks and recreation departments through municipalities can meet any new protocols.

Rules are only as strong as they are used and enforced, and if this chamber and ultimately the House moves forward to codify this bill into law, then we should be mindful of ensuring that, down the road, the ministry evaluates resources to ensure compliance and that the ministry checks in with our sports stakeholders across the province, the actors who are doing the work—who are often volunteers—of youth sports.

The importance of children and youth sports in Ontario cannot be overstated. Participating in sports provides a multitude of benefits, from fostering a healthy lifestyle and promoting physical development to teaching invaluable life skills such as teamwork, discipline and resilience. Sports serve as a platform for children and youth to learn about co-operation, leadership and the importance of setting and achieving goals.

Yet beyond the personal growth opportunity, youth sports play a crucial role in community building. They create bonds among children, families and community members, fostering a sense of unity and belonging. Youth sports is where my family grew many of our friendships, ones that last to this day. They provide a safe and constructive environment for children to engage with their peers, thereby promoting social inclusion and diversity.

Support for youth sports is not merely an investment in our children, but in the future of our society. It ensures that these beneficial experiences remain accessible to all, regardless of socio-economic status or geographic location. In doing so, we are fostering a healthier, more connected and more resilient future for generations to come. Therefore, it is our collective responsibility as parents, educators, community leaders and policy-makers to continue to champion and invest in youth sports in Canada. Our children deserve nothing less.

I am a former coach of youth sports. It is paramount that we do everything and anything possible to keep children safe when they are playing sports in the province of Ontario. This brings me to St. Catharines, a community that I’m kind of passionate about, and passionate about its youth sports—home to countless soccer fields, and as our Scottish community calls them, often a football field, where thousands of children play, grow and foster a love for the game. Sports are to be enjoyed.

We have great sporting leagues in my riding. The St. Catharines Jets Soccer Club, Garden City soccer club, the St. Catharines Minor Baseball Association, the St. Catharines Kiwanis aquatics club, St. Catharines Rowing Club, St. Catharines Falcons hockey, St. Catharines Junior Badgers. I’d best there stop there or I’ll take up all the time that is going to be remaining. The point is that, despite the rain, the heat or the early mornings, parents and their children show up every day eager to play and to improve. We owe it to them to make sure we do all we can to keep each and every child safe within all of our communities in Ontario.

These are examples of the vibrant youth sporting cultures we have in St. Catharines and, indeed, across Ontario. This culture, this spirit of sport, is something we want to encourage, support and, most importantly, safeguard. Through reasonable measures such as the ones proposed in Garrett’s Legacy Act, we can do just that.

In the face of potential challenges, let us also remember the creativity, the resilience and the commitment of the people of Ontario. We have seen it time and time again, how our communities rise to the challenge, and I am confident that they will rise to this one as well. Garrett’s Legacy Act is a reasonable, balanced approach to a critical issue. It seeks to protect our children, to ensure the joy of the sport is not marred by preventable tragedies. It invites us—as lawmakers, as community members and as Ontarians—to uphold our responsibility to our youngest citizens.

It is my hope that the ministry will follow up with consultation with the community, the volunteer and amateur sporting organizations to ensure that any measures enacted today will be met with the equally weighted support of our Ontario government to ensure costs are offset and goals can be reached.

I will be supporting this bill with the understanding that it is not just about movable soccer goalposts, but about the legacy we leave behind for our children, about the safe and vibrant sporting culture we want for them. Let us all in this House across Ontario please remember Garrett. Let us honour his family’s advocacy. Let us forever keep Garrett in our hearts and minds, across every soccer field, across every sporting event. Most of all, let his legacy be one of safety, care and love for the sport he played.

It is an honour and a pleasure to speak during private members’ business here this afternoon. I want to thank the member from St. Catharines for her remarks this afternoon on a very, very important piece of legislation brought forward by my friend and colleague from Hastings–Lennox and Addington, a neighbouring riding, Bill 99, Garrett’s Legacy Act. And it’s great to welcome his wife Heidi to the Legislature here today as well. I see Heidi quite often at events, along with the member from Hastings–Lennox and Addington.

Garrett’s Legacy Act, An Act to provide for safety measures respecting movable soccer goals, is what we’re talking about here today—something that hits close to home for me, actually. It was back in November 2017 when I brought the Mills family here to Queen’s Park for first reading of Garrett’s Legacy Act as a member of the official opposition. It was a few months before that, as Mr. Bresee highlighted, in May of that year—we’re coming up on the sixth anniversary of this terrible tragedy in Napanee—where Garrett Mills lost his life. The member described it so well: A 15-year-old boy who’s out in the park with his girlfriend and his best friend just hanging around, being kids, having a great time—being silly, as his dad Dave described him. I call Dave “Buzz,” Madam Speaker—Buzz is his nickname and his radio persona that he goes by. He’s a morning radio announcer at Rock 107 in the Quinte region. I’ve known Dave, or Buzz, for quite some time, and of course, have gotten to know Gwen over the last six years since this tragedy occurred.

But they were there in the park on a beautiful sunny day in Napanee, just hanging out. Garrett wasn’t a soccer player; he was just a kid hanging out in the park, having a good time with his friends. His dad told me that he had just taken up physical fitness. He was starting to get in shape. He was a bit of a beanpole, Madam Speaker. He wasn’t a big kid at all, but he jumped up to grab the crossbar of this 400-pound movable soccer goal to do a couple of chin-ups when it came crashing down and crushed his skull.

I remember when the news broke that day in the Quinte region. Buzz is a bit of a celebrity in our community, and there was a lot of grief in our community that day and for the days to come—just such a preventable tragedy in our community. So it was my honour to bring that private member’s bill to the floor of the Legislature for first reading in November 2017 and then debate it in December 2017 and get full support from the Legislature, which I anticipate we’ll get here today, for something that is as common sense as this is. I never want to predict the outcome of the Legislature, but I’m pretty sure we’re all on the same page here today around this.

Garrett lost his life that day, but as MPP Bresee mentioned, there have been over 40 young people across North America that have been killed by these tipping soccer goals. Some of them are 400 pounds, but if you push on them with your fingers in the right direction, if they’re not secured, they can fall over and kill a child or seriously harm a child. A gust of wind sometimes, if they’re not secured, can knock these nets over.

I remember at the time reaching out to a number of stakeholders, interested parties and groups to discuss whether or not this made sense to them and maybe look at red tape issues that might occur as a result of bringing in legislation like this. What would it mean? We had so much support at that time.

I jotted them down, because I remember a few of the stakeholder groups that I met with: the Insurance Bureau of Canada, the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association, Parachute, the Ontario Recreation Facilities Association, Parks and Recreation Ontario and the Ontario Safety League. That was the year, Madam Speaker—I don’t know if you’ll remember—that TFC, the Toronto Football Club, won Major League Soccer that year, and they were supporting Garrett’s Legacy Act at that time. There was a lot of support to do this, to make this common-sense piece of legislation become reality and allow Garrett’s legacy to live on through this common-sense piece of legislation.

As the member from St. Catharines described, there are a lot of kids out there playing soccer and playing sports in our communities. It just makes so much sense for the personal development for these children. They call soccer the beautiful game. I think many of us would agree that teaching our children the value of hard work and discipline and teamwork really is a beautiful thing.

We’re not always able to protect our kids. Kids are going to get injured. They are going to get seriously hurt playing sports. But sometimes there are common-sense approaches that are completely preventable. These injuries are completely preventable, and these deaths are preventable. This is one of those ways. It’s up to us as elected officials to make sure that we’re passing legislation that is going to make this different.

I can tell you, I was shocked when this happened, and then I was shocked to learn that this had been going on and that 40 children had lost their lives and many others were seriously injured across North America. There have been jurisdictions, as MPP Bresee outlined, that have already passed legislation, including the Yukon, and many US states have brought in legislation to ensure that these goals are secure, that they have the weights on them, that they are attached so they won’t tip over. And they’re not restrictive. They’re not resulting in red tape.

It really hit home that a 15-year-old young girl by the name of Jaime Palm from Bradford died the same way; that a six-year-old from Wallaceburg, down in southwestern Ontario, who was actually playing soccer during a game—Mark Weese lost his life. Can you imagine what a terrible situation that must have been for everybody at the field that day? What a tragic event that was so preventable.

I had the opportunity in the spring of 2018—the Premier wasn’t the Premier then. The Premier was the candidate, and he was making his way across the province, meeting people in communities all across Ontario, including in the Quinte region. I brought him into my old haunts, Quinte Broadcasting, to meet the folks there and make an appearance on the Lorne Brooker Show and talk about some of the things that were important to him and hear from people on the radio. He met Buzz that day in the Rock 107 studio. He sat down and heard the story about Garrett and what had happened to him. I remember, as Buzz was telling the Premier about the tragic situation and how awful it was for his family and the entire community, the Premier’s eyes welled up. He had tears in his eyes and he said, “Don’t worry, buddy. We’re going to get this done for you, and we’re going to get this done for Garrett.”

Today, we have the opportunity to stand together, join together as members of the Legislature to ensure that this is Garrett’s legacy. It’s a positive, positive legacy, one that is going to save lives and prevent injuries down the road. Full marks to my colleague the member from Hastings–Lennox and Addington for bringing it forward today. Thank you.