It’s a privilege to rise in the House today and stand with my Sikh brothers and sisters as they continue to celebrate Vaisakhi, with Nagar Kirtans being held across the GTA. The Sikh community is one that is proud, strong, humble and selfless. In my riding of Brampton North, and even having grown up in Brampton, this is something that I see first-hand every single day.

We have parades and festivals across Canada, and at many of these, a bottle of water costs you $3, a pop might be even more, and a hot dog might run you well over five bucks. But at a Nagar Kirtan, everything is given freely. The only money you can spend is actually donating back to the community and donating back to your gurdwara. You can get water, pop, pizza, chai, freezies—you name it. These are donated for the Nagar Kirtan out of the goodness of one’s heart and with the key Sikh principle of “seva” in mind.

Seva in Sikhism means selfless and voluntary service for the benefit of humanity, without any personal gain. At every Nagar Kirtan, you will see this on full display. The community will offer so much to their neighbours, all are welcome, and after the parade, you won’t see any garbage or mess left behind because the community gets together to clean up the neighbourhood.

I think we can all learn these important values from the Sikh community. I hope everyone had or takes the opportunity to attend a Nagar Kirtan this year. If you need a recommendation, the Guru Nanak Mission Centre in my riding will be hosting on Sunday, June 4. Hope to see you there.

As we’ve heard, it is Peterborough Day here at Queen’s Park. I wanted to remind everyone to visit the receptions in rooms 228 and 230 for lunch today. As someone who is fairly near to Peterborough, and Peterborough is near and dear to my heart—I remember skating on the canal as a child—I hope everyone comes to join us. Welcome, today.

I’m very honoured to introduce Maya Valente, her family and all the educators from St. John Bosco Catholic School. You may have heard that Maya faced a medical emergency while in school. Her educators were on the scene, really helping to support her through that difficulty. I want to thank her for her leadership and thank the staff and the families at the Hospital for Sick Children for supporting her. She’s back in school and she’s safe today. Thank you so much.

I’d like to introduce the executive director of Flowers Canada, Andrew Morse. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

It’s my pleasure to introduce members from my staff team in Hamilton West–Ancaster–Dundas: Nick Higgins and, on her very first day, Micaela Krawczuk. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

I want to wish a warm welcome to my executive assistant from my constituency office, who is here today in the members’ gallery, Idan Yakobovitch, with his family visiting from Israel: Zvi and Orit, and his sister Anat Yakobovitch. Thank you very much for coming.

It is Niagara Week, and I want to extend a warm welcome to Jim Bradley, chair of the Niagara region, and all my friends who are here with us today from the region. I know that you’ll be having great discussions about how we can work together to better grow Ontario and Niagara. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

It’s my pleasure today to introduce some of my constituency staff, some of whom have never been here before. I’ll start with Tiffany Lloyd, Jamie-Lynn McGarvey, Lixy Rolston and my long-suffering constituency manager Anita Ramski. Welcome to the House.

The Women’s Multicultural Resource and Counselling Centre of Durham celebrated its 30th anniversary this past Saturday at its inspiring hope and rebuilding lives gala. I was joined at the gala by MPP Patrice Barnes from Ajax and the Honourable Charmaine Williams, Associate Minister of Women’s Social and Economic Opportunity.

Speaker, over the years, the counselling centre has served thousands of women across the region of Durham. Our government is pleased to be able to fund the Women’s Multicultural Resource and Counselling Centre of Durham so that executive director Esther Enyolu, the board of directors and staff are able to assist women in the Durham region who have experienced social and economic barriers to access services and develop the skills needed to gain financial security and live safely with a greater sense of security.

Congratulations to the counselling centre on 30 years of service to Durham region, lifting up women and their families in Durham region. Thank you for your dedication to supporting women in crisis.

It’s my pleasure today to introduce Lisa, Brian and Brayden Vermet sitting over here. They’re family members of legislative page Olivia from St. Brigid Catholic school in Cambridge.

Today is Peterborough Day at Queen’s Park, so I have the entire contingency up in the public gallery. I won’t name everyone, but I will name a few: Warden Bonnie Clark, Mayor Sherry Senis, Deputy Mayor Ron Black, Mayor Heather Watson, Mayor Jim Martin, Mayor Terry Lambshead, former member and mayor of the city of Peterborough Jeff Leal and Deputy Mayor Gary Baldwin. From my office I also have, in the Speaker’s gallery, Andrea Dodsworth, Jenna DePaiva, Sally Carson and Halle Kunjal.

As we’ve all heard, it is Niagara Week here at Queen’s Park. So, in addition to welcoming those who have already been mentioned, I want to also note that we have the regional councillor for Lincoln, Rob Foster, in the House, and we also have Diana Huson, the regional councillor for the town of Pelham. I also want to acknowledge CAO Ron Tripp and Daryl Barnhart, who are here today. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

It’s Niagara Week, and we’re very excited. I’d like to give a warm welcome to some of our elected representatives from Niagara who are here today. We’ve already met Regional Chair Jim Bradley, who I was looking for on this side; he’s over there, so I apologize for that. Also, I’d like to welcome the mayor of the town of Fort Erie, Wayne Redekop, the Lord Mayor—and the only Lord Mayor in the province of Ontario—from the town of Niagara-on-the-Lake, Gary Zalepa, and the mayor of the city Niagara Falls, Jim Diodati.

I’d also like to welcome my two staff members who are here today, Quinn and Gillian. Gillian is a student who has been working in our office for the last six weeks, and she’s now going on to university. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

It’s my pleasure to welcome members of the Ontario Greenhouse Alliance to the Legislature today. Please join us, our advocates for fresh floral and fresh Ontario-grown produce, tonight in the legislative dining room at 5 p.m.

I’ve heard loud and clear from families in my riding of Brampton East and across the province about their concerns regarding the rise in violence and criminal activity over the last year. To better serve our constituents, our government has implemented several new measures to reassure Ontarians and safeguard families.

Our government is taking bold action to address this matter with our recent announcement of investing $51 million to crack down on auto theft and organized crime. A few short weeks ago, we moved a motion calling on the federal government to reform the Criminal Code of Canada and implement meaningful bail reform. Last July, we announced $75 million in funding for police forces to crack down on guns, gangs and violence. Since then, we’ve seen significant arrests, like the $10 million of stolen vehicles seized in Peel or the $3.1 million of drugs seized in Sarnia by the OPP and the RCMP.

I’d like to thank police officers across the province for the commendable work they do putting their lives on the line to serve and protect our communities and our families. I would like to commend the Peel Regional Police for working diligently in collaboration with the OPP to combat auto theft, which has been a growing concern for many residents, especially mine, those in Brampton.

Speaker, our government has heard from the residents, and we are taking bold action. We’ll always do whatever it takes to ensure the safety and protection of all families across Ontario.

We have a special guest with us in the members’ gallery today, a former member who was the representative of the riding of St. Catharines from the 31st to the 41st provincial Parliament and is now the chair of the regional municipality of Niagara. Jim Bradley is with us today. Welcome back.

Government House leader.

Thank you, Speaker. I didn’t think there would be any objections.

Let me welcome Rafael Morales, Julie Reaume and Rosemary Chalmers, who are the parents and grandmother of page Maya from Markham–Stouffville.

Good morning, Speaker. This question is for the Premier.

Ontario’s greenbelt includes over two million acres of protected land, including some of the most fertile agricultural land in the country. The greenbelt generates nearly $9.6 billion in annual economic activity, and supports over 177,000 jobs. It also provides $3.2 billion a year in services like flood protection, water purification and stormwater management.

Speaker, does the Premier really think this is all a big scam?

Speaker, let’s talk about scams. How about the one where developers with close ties to the Conservatives somehow knew to buy protected land in the greenbelt long before the change was made? To the Premier: How did these developers get advance notice of his government’s intentions to carve up the greenbelt?

Let’s get this straight: They won’t tell us who shared information about the greenbelt carve-up in advance of the November 2022 announcement. They won’t acknowledge that developers who benefited from this were at private family fundraisers of the Premier. They won’t release the records of who in the Premier’s office was sharing this information. And now, they’re trying to distract by saying that the greenbelt is not a thing.

Speaker, the Premier owes Ontarians a straight answer: Is he planning to open up more sections of the greenbelt for his developer friends, yes or no?

Speaker, through you, to the Minister of Health: Between 2021 and 2022, Niagara experienced a 55% increase in EMS off-load delays, and in the latter half of 2022, a total of over $1.7 million of the regional levy was spent to address the record number of EMS calls. In 2022, Niagara EMS incurred almost 34,000 off-load delay hours, which is equivalent to 24 paramedics for 365 days. Will the minister commit to reimbursing the over $1.7 million spent on additional off-load delays and ensure that Niagara is funded for an additional health team to help address the underlying causes of our EMS crisis, as requested by Niagara’s municipal leaders?