I had the honour of attending the opening for the Auchmar Manor, which is a historic building in my riding. The Auchmar Manor was built in 1855 by Sir Isaac Buchanan, a political leader who represented Hamilton in the Legislative Assembly of the province of Ontario pre-Confederation.

The manor is just one of the magnificent buildings in the area that are an important legacy of our history. Walking through Hamilton, Dundas, Ancaster, you can visit historic locations like Dundurn Castle, once the family home of Queen Camilla’s great-great-grandmother. Everywhere you go, there’s a celebration of the pairing between food and heritage. You can grab a bite at the Collins Brewhouse, built in 1840, dine at Quatrefoil, built in the 1860s, grab a beer at the Coach and Lantern, built in the 1700s and used during the War of 1812, or meet friends at the vibrant Café Domestique, which was built in 1911.

The organization that hosted me is Doors Open Hamilton, who prepare these buildings for tours, offer walking tours and do advocacy for their preservation locally and here at Queen’s Park. I want to thank the organizers who gave their time, especially local historians Stan Nowak, Diane Dent, Richard Allen, Shannon Kyles and the many, many others, the many volunteers who give their time to honour and preserve these great buildings to make sure that they are standing for many future generations to enjoy. Thank you so much for all that you do in the riding of Hamilton West–Ancaster–Dundas.

No further business.

May is National Lyme Disease Awareness Month across Canada. It is an opportunity for Lyme patients, advocates and educators to spread awareness about how to prevent Lyme and tick-borne diseases.

I want to recognize some of the groups working tirelessly across Ontario to improve the lives of people who have Lyme disease: Linda Kelso and the Ontario Lyme Alliance; CanLyme; Rossana Magnotta and the G. Magnotta Foundation for Vector-Borne Diseases; as well as Dr. Melanie Wills with the University of Guelph Lyme disease research lab. They are all advocating for more resources for patients with Lyme disease across Ontario and Canada.

Lyme disease is a significant and growing health issue across our province. It is a tick-borne bacterial infection. Lyme-carrying ticks are on the rise across Canada, and the highest rates of human-acquired cases are in Ontario. If left undiagnosed and untreated, Lyme can mimic other diseases like ALS, multiple sclerosis and lupus.

Speaker, once May is over, people with Lyme disease will still be suffering. Ontario needs to do more to help those already diagnosed with Lyme and to prevent further spread of the disease.

I encourage this government to help tackle Lyme in Ontario by implementing all 10 recommendations from the 2018 Report of the Lyme Disease and Tick-Borne Illnesses Task Force.

Speaker, I challenge all MPPs to join me and take a bite out of Lyme on the front lawn this afternoon, right after question period.

Good morning. Mino-gigizheb.

This week is nurses’ week, and I’d like to talk about nurses in the north. Federal nurses working in fly-in First Nations clinics are in a crisis. They work 24-hour shifts in out-of-date facilities, thousands of miles away from their homes and families. I know this takes a toll on their mental and physical health, and the burnout is at an all-time high. The health care crisis faced by the people of Kiiwetinoong is made worse by these conditions, which leads to unnecessary suffering and needless deaths.

All levels of government have a treaty obligation to provide health care.

Rather than dealing with the causes of this recruitment and retention crisis, the federal government spends millions of dollars contracting out work to private nursing agencies, and we know Ontario does the exact same thing. This approach leaves patients in the north without the consistency and the quality of care they deserve and creates a situation where staff and nurses are working alongside freelance workers at double their salaries. We cannot continue to accept this. This is not normal, and we need to improve.

I’d like to say to the nurses: Meegwetch. Thank you for the work that you do in the north.

I had a topic in mind that was far more cheerful, and then I woke up this morning and found out that we had lost another police officer in the line of duty, Sergeant Eric Mueller. Part of me considered just standing here for the remainder of my time, because there really are no words, but what I wanted to say was, to the officers out there and the friends and the family, how deeply sorry I am.

I was the partner of a police officer for quite some time, and we were together during the period of the Nova Scotia shooting. He wasn’t even a patrol officer; he was in major crimes, so not generally responding to calls. But after that happened, I experienced these incredible panic attacks when I would call him and he didn’t immediately answer his phone. I would have this fear that he was dead even though most of the murders that had happened now had not even happened at that point in time.

All this to say that I understand, in some small way, what the families of these officers feel when they say goodbye and they go to work in the morning, no longer knowing if they will come home safely. I will continue to be an advocate for them, and again, just express how deeply, deeply sorry I am to all of these officers.

I proudly rise to carry on a great Nursing Week tradition, begun by my predecessor Percy Hatfield, to recognize in the House the recipient of this year’s RNAO Lois Fairley Nursing Award, Mary Cunningham. Mary has been serving for 46 years and has been part of the intensive care unit at our Ouellette Campus since 1990. Mary mentors and guides all those who have had the privilege to work with her. She has helped develop the provincial standards for nursing in critical care, as well as for end-of-life programs. It is Mary’s work to care for families that truly shines through, while consistently giving of her knowledge to our community’s newest nurses. Her colleagues have rightfully described her passion for caregiving as being contagious.

The Fairley family and the Windsor-Essex chapter of the RNAO selected Mary from among nominations received from the public. Lois Fairley, the namesake of the award, was both a graduate and an employee of Windsor’s Grace Hospital for 38 years. Lois served as a director of RNAO and president of the Ontario Nurses Association, as well as sitting on the St. Clair College nursing program advisory committee.

Mary Cunningham demonstrates, just as Lois Fairley did, that amazing people work in nursing, and it’s truly fitting that she’s bestowed with this honour.

Thank you so much, Mary, for your service to us in Windsor-Essex and to the province of Ontario.

As we celebrate Nursing Week in Ontario, I’d like to take a moment to thank the hard-working nurses of Ottawa West–Nepean and all across Ontario, including the amazing nurses of ONA Local 83 at the Ottawa Hospital, Local 84 at the Queensway Carleton Hospital and the wonderful RPNs of CUPE 4000 and CUPE 2875. Their dedication and unwavering commitment to patient care has supported so many of us through so many difficult, challenging, heartbreaking and life-affirming moments of the past few years, and they have done all of this incredible work in spite of the very challenging conditions they’ve had to work in and the serious disrespect with which they have been treated by this government.

A sincere and heartfelt thank you for all of the work that you do and keep on doing.

Now it’s time for us to have your back. It’s time for the government to negotiate a fair contract, to stop fighting the court’s decision on Bill 124. It’s time to stop the privatization agenda that is pulling nurses out of the public health care system, leaving public hospitals short-staffed and contributing to longer wait times and frustrated patients. It’s time to stop the temp agency insanity that puts profits in the pockets of investors while treating nurses on the public payroll unfairly. It’s time for the government to show nurses the respect you so deserve so that you can keep on doing the job you love.

I’d like to welcome Wanda Deschamps and her son Adrien here to Queen’s Park. Wanda is a local EDA volunteer, and she’s also the founder of Liberty Co, which advocates for increasing neurodivergent employment in Ontario.

I’d like to welcome, from my constituency of Vaughan–Woodbridge, Nicholas Vine and Aleksandra Dowiat, whose daughter Sophie is page captain today.

Welcome to Queen’s Park.

Meegwetch, Speaker. This morning, I’d like to introduce the policy and the communications team from the Ontario Federation of Indigenous Friendship Centres. They are here in the members’ gallery: Abigail Hill; Tessa Jourdain; Chelsea Combot; Jennifer McPhee; Sarah Lukaszczyk; Stan Williams; Annie Mackillican; Francene Antone; Randi Jacob; Jada Reynolds; and, again, the former member for Toronto Centre, Suze Morrison.

Welcome to Queen’s Park, and meegwetch for the important work that you do.

I am very pleased today to welcome to the chamber my new constituency assistant, Amy Lester.

Welcome, Amy.

I’d like to introduce Marilyn Heinz and Charles Taylor from beautiful Burlington. Marilyn was recently recognized as a 25-year volunteer with Acclaim Health. She connects with people through the Tele-Touch program. And this is Charles’s first visit to Queen’s Park.

It is my pleasure to welcome Chris Rankin, Jen Rankin and Kyle Rankin, the proud family of page Mackenzie Rankin from Lambton–Kent–Middlesex.

Welcome to Queen’s Park.

I’d like to welcome a former constituent of mine from the Merritton area. He was a former page, too.

Jackson Burch, happy birthday to you, and welcome to your House.

I’m pleased to recognize the presence in the chamber today of a former member of this assembly, the member for Toronto Centre in the 42nd Parliament: Suze Morrison.

Welcome back to Queen’s Park.

During question period on days the House sits, I will continue to recognize one independent member to ask a question each day and a second independent member to ask a question every Tuesday. On Wednesdays, we will return to having a second question for independent members on alternating weeks.

With regard to members’ statements, there will continue to be one statement allotted to an independent member every sessional day, with each individual member entitled to make a statement once per 11-day period.

As a result of the resignation of the member for Scarborough–Guildwood, there are now seven Liberal independent members rather than eight, which changes the amount of speaking time available to the Liberal independent members as a group.

At the beginning of this Parliament, I explained that in order for each independent member to have an opportunity to participate in debate on second and third reading of government bills and on substantive government motions proportional to what any other individual member might have, each independent member would be allotted three minutes of speaking time per debate. As there are now seven Liberal independent members, and since standing order 26(a) does not permit speeches longer than 20 minutes, I am now prepared to recognize any of the Liberal independent members for one speech of up to 20 minutes. This time may be shared amongst the Liberal independent members pursuant to standing order 26(d), but it may not be banked.

Thank you for your attention.

With a heavy heart, if you seek it, you will find unanimous consent for this House to observe a moment of silence in remembrance of Ontario Provincial Police Sergeant Eric Mueller, who was tragically killed in the line of duty earlier this morning in Bourget.

I really want to thank all the colleagues who have mentioned Nursing Week. It’s truly heartwarming to receive all those wishes.

Yes, Mr. Speaker, this week is National Nursing Week, a chance for us to recognize and celebrate the invaluable contributions that registered nurses, registered practical nurses, nurse practitioners and nursing students make to our health care system everyday. This year’s theme is “Our Nurses. Our Future.” using the hashtag #HeyNurse—showcasing the many roles nurses play in a patient’s journey to wellness, connecting patients to the high-quality care they need closer to home.

As a registered nurse and a clinician myself, I recognize the invaluable contributions nurses make to our province, being the gentler touch in health care, the face of dignity and the voice of compassion that so many of our patients need. As we know, nurses have worked through unprecedented challenges and have continued to rise to the occasion. That is why the theme “Our Nurses. Our Future.” is synonymous to me with investing into the success of our nursing students, and that is exactly what our government is doing.

The Learn and Stay program provides free tuition and textbooks for RN and NP students located in priority communities, and with this level of investment, it is no surprise that in 2022, Ontario experienced a record-breaking enrolment, recruiting 30,000 nursing students to grow the workforce for future generations.

Today, colleagues, let’s use the hashtag #HeyNurse to thank exceptional nurses in our community.

Happy National Nursing Week.

It’s my honour today to welcome John and Nicki Groenewegen, constituents of mine from Guelph who have come for a tour of the Legislature and who will have lunch with me today as part of a fundraiser for the Rotary Club of Guelph.

I would also like to acknowledge that Tessa Jourdain from the Ontario Federation of Indigenous Friendship Centres is also a constituent of mine from Guelph.

Thanks for being here at Queen’s Park today.

Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to welcome Ahnaf Al Habib, Si Ya Li, Fiona Mooney, Mahir Tasnif and Kaeyaan Rashid in the Speaker’s gallery. They’re from Greenbelt Youth Action at Riverdale Collegiate in my riding.

Welcome to the Legislature.