“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas the federal government is increasing the escalated carbon tax by 14%, on April 1, 2023;

“Whereas carbon tax cost increase will put more pressure on consumers who are already struggling with inflation;

“Whereas we call on the federal government to stop the carbon tax, which is a tax hike that Ontarians and Canadians cannot afford;

“Whereas the government of Ontario is helping to reduce the cost of living by keeping taxes low, freezing and eliminating licence plate renewal fees and scrapping the requirement to have licence plate stickers for passenger vehicle, light-duty trucks, motorcycles and mopeds and building on these measures in Bill 85, Building a Strong Ontario Act (Budget Measures), 2023, the government continues to help Ontarians with the cost of living;

“Whereas we call on the Ontario government to urge the federal government to halt the carbon tax increase, that will raise the cost of” living for “everything;

“Therefore we, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as follows:

“To support the passage of Bill 85, Building a Strong Ontario Act (Budget Measures), 2023.”

I sign my name on top of here and give it to page Nicholas in support of this.

I obviously support this bill. I’ve had my own challenges with mental health. The pandemic has been hard on everyone, including some of my staff at the restaurant. Whenever we were able to take off the masks—the majority of my staff at the restaurant struggled to take their masks off, not because of COVID, but because they were worried about having a maskless face in society.

My children were extremely lucky. My wife is a teacher, so they were able to have her at home. We have a fairly big backyard, so we’re privileged in that regard. But my son struggled last year when we went away for March break and went down to Niagara Falls. The first time he went into a pool that did not have a scheduled hour for family, he had the mask on. There were only two other people in the pool, and my son struggled to go into the pool enclosure.

So as much as I’d like to believe that my children were fairly okay throughout the pandemic, there are some challenges that they’ve gone through. My wife being a teacher, she sees it every day. The nine months that they were off, it was tough. It was challenging. The three months last January, she felt it pushed them back a full year.

So I fully support this motion. I thank the member from Brampton East for bringing it forward, because my daughter Norah is here today and, ultimately, I’d like to know that the children are looked after, so thank you.