I thank the member opposite for her important question.

Since we were elected in 2018, road safety has been a top priority for our government. I just want to underline the fact that road safety is not a partisan issue. Our government has worked closely with members of the opposition caucus on these important measures because we want to do everything we can to protect our vulnerable road users.

Since September 2018, we’ve implemented important changes that will protect vulnerable road users. We’ve increased penalties for drivers who fail to yield for pedestrians at crosswalks, at crossovers and at school crossings. We’ve increased the maximum fine penalty for all general offences under the Highway Traffic Act.

And we’ve introduced a new offence for careless driving causing death or bodily harm, with penalties that include fines, licence suspensions and imprisonment. This offence carries the longest prison term of any penalty in the Highway Traffic Act.

But this is not a one-and-done issue. It’s an ongoing priority, and we’re going to continue to work with Ontarians—

Our government introduced community safety zones around schools for this specific issue, to make sure that drivers take extra care when they are driving around our most vulnerable, our children. We have allowed municipalities to introduce this around schools, and we’re doing everything we can to support community safety zone implementation across Ontario. We understand that in 2021 alone, over 250,000 tickets were issued to vehicles that were captured by speed cameras that were noticing speeding in these community safety zones.

We’re going to continue to support our municipalities as they take the measures that they can to protect vulnerable road users, especially around schools, and we’re going to continue to do what we can to make sure that our roads are among the safest anywhere in North America.

I’m proud today to rise representing the wonderful people of the riding of Hastings–Lennox and Addington, and even more proud to bring to this House Bill 99, An Act to provide for safety measures respecting movable soccer goals.

Speaker, this Bill 99 provides the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport with the mandate to create regulations to establish requirements for organizations and entities respecting the safe use of movable soccer goals that they make available for use by members of the public. The act provides for inspections and requires the minister to establish a mechanism to report complaints of alleged non-compliance with the act.

It may come as a surprise to many in this House that movable soccer nets tipping over have been blamed for more than 40 fatalities across North America—mostly children. I think we can all agree that if there were 40 fatalities, then there are many, many more significant injuries, incidents causing injury—possibly life-changing injury—and, on top of that, a very, very large number of near misses.

Mobile soccer nets are not inherently bad. Soccer is a wonderful sport—and, I’m told, one of the fastest-growing sports in North America—and we don’t want to stop the players from using these nets or even stop the players from jumping up to grab the bars. A very passionate and self-declared soccer mom, who is also a member of this House that I’m privileged to know and work with, emphasized to me the importance of stretching to reach the bars in all directions for the goalkeepers. It’s part of the practice, the routine of the elite goalkeepers to build that mental understanding of the location of the bars. Personally, I was never a soccer player, and my kids were definitely not elite soccer players, but I do equate it to something that I’ve seen in many other sports. Specifically, I think of NHL goalies who slap the bars of the net with a stick in the pre-game warm-up. It builds on their spatial awareness. So no, Speaker, we’re not trying to curtail or limit the players in their use of these nets.

Nor, Speaker, are we wanting to limit the use of the nets as opposed to other types of nets. There are lots of soccer fields with permanently mounted soccer goals, and those will never tip over. But those fields are also completely dedicated to use as a soccer field. For most facilities, it is much more practical to allow that many different sports are played on the same field, and having nets that can be moved in or out as needed creates that flexibility. It effectively doubles or triples the value of the asset to the school or the municipality or even the private facility owners. It enhances that organization’s ability to provide for outdoor recreation that we all want our children, and even our adults, to have access to.

So no, we want to continue to allow these uses by the property owners and by the players, the kids, but we all want them to be safe while they use them. So we make regulations about how they’re installed. So this bill, if passed, recognizes that the nature of these movable soccer nets and the fields that they’re used on may have many variations. By example, some nets are used on artificial surfaces and, if they’re designed so, can be anchored with the appropriate attachments. Mobile soccer nets used on natural surfaces can sometimes be anchored with pegs or with weights to hold them down. There are a wide variety of nets being used of different materials and for different purposes. So this bill recognizes that, and if it receives royal assent, it will provide the authority for the minister to draft regulations that address the different situations and provide for the enforcement and the penalties for failing to comply.

It even addresses the opportunity to provide signage, stickers, and other educational tools to inform people—especially inform the parents—about these risks. Prior to the incident that I’m about to tell you about, I never knew that mobile soccer nets presented a risk, and I’m willing to bet that, like me, many parents have seen their kids play on or near soccer nets without ever stopping to think that they could tip over. So Speaker, this is a flexible response to reduce the risks of these nets, and I know that preventing these incidents, saving lives and preventing injuries is a priority for all members of the House.

The creation of these regulations will actually not be difficult. There are examples all around us. Several jurisdictions, including the Yukon, Illinois, New York, Arkansas, Wisconsin, have already passed laws requiring the nets to be secure, and almost all soccer associations in Canada and across the world have guidelines on how to do this.

I’ve spoken with the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport extensively on this, and he wants to make sure that there is a strong education and signage mandate within the regulations. He wants to work with the manufacturers, to make sure that the nets are as safe as they can be. So if there’s one single step that members of provincial Parliament can take to save a child, then surely we have an obligation to do so.

Garrett’s Legacy Act does not advocate for more red tape on soccer. It doesn’t want to drive up the cost of soccer—it is a very affordable sport to play—but, rather, the act proactively mitigates possible death or injuries.

Madam Speaker, unfortunately I must tell the story that brought me to this bill. It starts about six years ago, within my riding, in the town of Greater Napanee. In fact, three days from now, May 12, will be the sixth anniversary of this tragic story. It was a sunny spring day in May 2017. A 15-year-old boy from Napanee named Garrett Mills was playing in a park with his girlfriend, Joanna, and his best friend, Josh. Garrett was a friendly, positive young man who enjoyed making other people laugh, especially through silly puns, apparently. I’m told he made people better just by being around them.

His parents, Dave and Gwen Mills, are very proud of this responsible and charming young man. With modern technology and cell phones, I’ve actually seen some of the pictures they took that day and that show a young man exactly as he should be: enjoying a beautiful spring day. Later on, his girlfriend told us that Garrett actually said it was one of the best days of his life.

Unfortunately, on that May afternoon, Garrett was goofing around with his friends in a park he’d been to his entire life, and he was hanging off the crossbar of a movable soccer net, doing chin-ups, when tragedy struck. That 200-pound soccer goal collapsed, falling over on top of him, fracturing his skull. Garrett passed away later that afternoon, a victim of an entirely preventable accident.

I didn’t know Garrett personally, but a few months later, I got to know his dad. Dave Mills reached out to me, as I was a grieving father grieving the loss of my own daughter from leukemia. Dave and Gwen Mills are wonderful parents and compassionate human beings. Dave knew what I was going through—no parent should ever have to bury their child. His kind, sympathetic and empathetic words to me at the time were of tremendous comfort to me, and I will always be grateful to him for that.

Part of the stories that Dave told me about his son—he looked up to his son and admired the 15-year-old’s outlook on life. Garrett’s motto was to get out there and make a change in the world for the better, something we should all aspire to. Apparently, in the weeks shortly before the accident, Garrett, in his perennially curious nature, asked Dave what was meant by the term “legacy.” Dave explained that it meant a recognition of what that person did in their lifetime, a recognition that would carry on beyond their own lifetime. Some people write books or music, create art, some will build buildings, some will have statues memorializing their achievements and some have things named after them.

For many of us, our greatest legacy we will ever leave is that of our own children, and the carrying-on of the memory in the parents and the grandparents. It is said that regardless of the length of a person’s life, they do continue to live on as long as someone remembers them. At that time, Garrett had said that he hoped to leave a legacy. I know that Garrett will continue to live on in the hearts of his family, but I hope with this bill to take that one step further.

So, Madam Speaker, we have before us Garrett’s Legacy Act, because a preventable tragedy can no longer be called an accident. Dave and Gwen will continue to remember Garrett, no matter what—is laughter, his love of life. Dave, Garrett’s father, knows he can’t get Garrett back, but he also doesn’t want his son’s death to have been in vain.

So please, let’s carry this bill today and move it forward to committee and third reading so that no other parent has to bury a child because of an incident like this, because of a preventable incident like this. And then Garrett will have his legacy, and Dave and Gwen Mills will know that their son helped to prevent others from suffering the way they have.

I implore you, the elected representatives of the people of Ontario, please act to enshrine Garrett’s name in this Bill 99, the Garrett’s Legacy Act, so that his legacy is the prevention of another family suffering this kind of terrible loss.

I know that any member here, if you could prevent the loss of a young person or prevent a parent from having to bury their child, they would do it. This bill will do just that. I ask that you all support this.

I want to thank all of my colleagues here for expressing their interest and their support for this bill and for those who have spoken to it. I also wanted to mention the members, both past and present, who have brought bills like this forward to continue to move this forward so that we can get this done.

I think we can all agree that the safety of the athletes, the public and especially the children is a cause that we can all stand behind. What this bill will do, if the House sees fit to pass it, is not only give Garrett Mills a legacy but also save lives.

It is a privilege to stand here before this House to promote the game of soccer, but to increase the safety of the beautiful game. I would also like to thank the wide number of soccer associations across the province and across the country who organize the sport. They’re the ones who make it safe for our kids, and we are now, with this bill, going to equip them with another tool to make the sport safer, while keeping the players on the field and the public safe.

This bill today will hopefully see through education, signage and securing the nets, so that there are no more preventable accidents involving movable soccer nets.