En cette Semaine nationale de la police, j’aimerais prendre cette opportunité ici en Chambre pour remercier les premiers répondants de ma communauté, mais aussi de toute la province.

Comme vous le savez, nous avons vécu une situation tragique dans notre circonscription la semaine dernière dans le village de Bourget, dans la municipalité de Clarence-Rockland. L’embuscade qui a causé le décès d’un de nos sergents et blessé deux autres agents de police est une situation qui est inexplicable et nous laisse sans mots. Nos pensées sont avec les familles, les amis, les collègues du sergent Mueller et avec toutes les personnes qui ont été affectées par cet évènement.

Je tiens à remercier de tout coeur les membres du service de paramédic de Prescott et Russell, tous ces gens qui se sont rendus sur les lieux, ceux qu’on appelle les premiers répondants, qui ont mis leurs vies en danger pour venir au secours de leurs collègues. Nous ne comprendrons jamais comment difficile ça peut être de vivre avec des souvenirs de toutes sortes de situations comme celle de la semaine dernière, parce que la plupart de nous ne seront jamais confrontés à de telles situations.

Lorsque je suis revenu de Toronto jeudi soir dernier, pendant les cinq heures de route, j’ai eu beaucoup de temps à penser—à penser à tous les amis, parents, enfants, à tous ces premiers répondants, policiers, paramédicaux, pompiers et autres intervenants, qui mettent leurs vies en danger chaque jour pour venir en aide à nos citoyens. J’aimerais les remercier. Merci à vous tous pour votre travail incroyable.

Earlier this month, I joined the Minister of Long-Term Care for a tour of the construction site of Wellbrook Place, our new, state-of-the-art long-term-care home on Speakman Drive in Mississauga–Lakeshore. When it is open this fall, it will be the largest long-term-care home in Ontario, giving 632 new residents a modern, safe and comfortable place to call home. It will meet the latest standards for long-term-care design and safety, including private bedrooms and an enhanced HVAC system. Special units will care for people with advanced dementia, and a dialysis program will support residents living with kidney disease. Specialists from Trillium Health Partners will operate these programs, so that residents with complex needs get the care they need right at home, without unnecessary visits to hospitals or emergency rooms.

Future phases of this project will include a new health services building, and the first residential hospice in Mississauga, to be built and operated by Heart House Hospice.

I want to thank Tess Romain and her team at Partners Community Health for all their work on this project.

And I want to thank the minister for our historic investment of $6.4 billion in the largest long-term-care building program in Canadian history, including 1,100 new and upgraded beds in Mississauga–Lakeshore alone, more than any other riding in the province of Ontario.

Thanks for the question.

I’m probably going to take a bit of a different approach than what my friends to my right here are taking. But I’m a fiscal conservative, and I think there’s a better approach to be taken.

The minister said earlier this morning that this government is here for every Ontarian. My constituents don’t feel that way. This is a government that was elected in 2018 to make life more affordable for Ontarians, and my constituents simply don’t see it. They don’t see it with respect to auto insurance rates. They don’t see it with respect to natural gas.

The Premier was once called the emperor who has no clothes when it comes to cutting taxes. When we talk about cutting taxes, we obviously turn right to cutting services—and that’s not always true.

So I think there are missed opportunities, as one of my colleagues said this morning.

I want to talk about the relief needed for rural Ontario. We see tax relief for northern residents who get a break for all the travel that they do, and it’s time those in rural Ontario get that same tax break. With respect to natural gas, the federal government’s energy prices disproportionately target rural residents and people of my riding. That doesn’t make life more affordable for them—

Today, I rise to share a message that my offices and I hear from constituents in our riding and across the province every day. The impact and effects of the rising cost of living, both short-term and long-term, are harmful and hurtful in so many ways. The struggle to make ends meet, to raise a family, to be safe, warm and fed with a place to call home should not be this tough for so many. Affording and maintaining basic needs should never take over the quality of one’s life or health, physically or mentally.

We hear the stories of families, friends, neighbours and community members who have exhausted all options, made every call and find themselves with nowhere to turn. We hear their current situations of unstable living conditions, lack of mental health supports, and long wait-lists due to underfunding. We bear witness to these conditions in our communities, in parks, schools, health care settings, workplaces and homes.

Deplorable government policies and budget constraints that hinder the very programs and people who have the solutions—solutions that can change lives and reverse some outcomes. We feel the effects when we see these programs closed due to funding, wait-lists growing even longer, and social service rates not meeting today’s living expenses, including shelter, food and health care.

I call on this government to listen, learn and fund these critical solutions.

Earlier this month, I had the pleasure of visiting with agriculture producers in my riding. Farm families are the backbone of Ontario, and Stormont–Dundas–South Glengarry is no exception. I was able to visit a variety of agriculture producers in my riding. The few I was able to visit were Cornerstone Organics, the first organic aquaponics operation in Ontario, helping our local food security with their greenhouse greens—next up, I visited Critesdale Farms and their state-of-the-art dairy facility operated by Calvin and Adam Crites to see how much technology has changed the way we farm. I finished the tour over at the Ferguson family grain merchandising and cash crop farm at Glen Gordon Farms in South Glengarry—with a bit of help understanding the cash crop industry.

This past weekend, I was able to get out and start roto-tilling my garden, getting ready for planting season at my house.

With the May long weekend around the corner, many people will be heading out to local garden centres like Marlin Orchards or Fines Home Hardware to get their flowers, vegetables and other gardening essentials.

With the recent sunny weather after weeks of rain, our farming community is working day and night to get the crops in the ground. I encourage everyone to be vigilant and give farm equipment the space they need to manoeuvre safely on our local roads.

I’ve talked several times about Sudbury and the urban myth of it being the moonscape where they trained NASA scientists. I’m pleased to find out that this year is actually the 50th year of re-greening our city.

My life seems to have charted the course of the re-greening of Sudbury. The Superstack was finished in 1971, the year that I was born. In 1973, VETAC was formed. That was the Vegetation Enhancement and Technical Advisory Committee, which we now just call the re-greening advisory committee. In 1978, that’s when the real work happened. I was seven years old. I remember watching out the window as helicopters—it was the first time I ever saw a helicopter in real life—were bringing lime to the rocks. I’ve talked many times in the past about the rocks in Sudbury being scarred black and growing up thinking that rocks naturally just turn black if they’re exposed to the air, the same way that a pop can would rust if it was exposed to the air. I didn’t know it was because of pollution. I didn’t know it was because of acid rain. So I would watch these workers all around MCTV, the new CTV station, spreading lime on the rocks, planting small shrubs. I have photos of my family and me going out to plant little seedlings that are now taller than I am.

It’s an interesting experience, when you think that when I was trained at Bell Canada to run drop lines, they told me not to worry about running through trees because in Sudbury trees don’t grow fast enough; the line would wear out before the tree grew. But now, 50 years forward, 10 million trees and shrubs have been planted, and we’ve received over 40 awards.

So the re-greening of Sudbury is near and dear to my heart.

This is a nice follow-up to the statement from the member from Barrie–Innisfil.

This morning, I rise to thank three men from Norfolk county who have returned from Holland as part of the Black Watch RHR pipes and drums band. For two weeks, Murray McKnight, Kevin McNeilly and Chris Faulkner joined 37 others leading a tour retracing the steps taken by Canadians in the liberation of the Netherlands. The band, developed solely for this tour, was comprised of current and former Black Watch members, other serving members, police services, and civilians from across Canada. The tour was set to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War but was delayed three years due to the pandemic. For Port Dover resident Murray McKnight, the recent trip was a childhood dream come true. McKnight says the tour surpassed his wildest dreams and is an opportunity he will likely never be afforded again.

While on tour, the band played in ceremonies and parades in small towns, and they visited each and every cemetery where Black Watch soldiers were laid to rest. At Holten cemetery, McKnight, McNeilly and Faulkner were able to pay special tribute to William Stackhouse of St. Williams, George Dayton of Vanessa, William Grahm of Port Dover, and Frank Tredly of Woodhouse—all soldiers who paid the ultimate sacrifice.

In Wageningen, the men were astounded as people lined the street for 3.5 kilometres at 12 deep. People hung out their windows—a picture McKnight described as surreal. “It’s clear the Dutch people are still very appreciative and that they have not forgotten.”

This memorial band, solely formed for this event, has now been disbanded.

Thank you to these men, to the band, and all those who made this incredible historical journey a reality.

This week marks the 78th anniversary of the declaration of victory in Europe. On May 11, 1945, Commonwealth commanders, including Canadians, began their first preparations to begin massive demobilization efforts to return the hundreds of thousands of Canadian warriors and heroes back home following Supreme Allied Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower’s public statements that no soldier, sailor or air personnel who fought in Europe or North Africa ought to be sent to the Pacific theatre.

Also, earlier this month was the 79th anniversary of the liberation of the Netherlands. In the weeks following VE day, Canadian commanders worked alongside Dutch civil authorities and communities to lay to final rest all Canadian soldiers who fell in Germany on allied soil. No Canadian was to be buried in Germany.

This week, we pay tribute to the fallen and all veterans of the Allied forces for securing victory against Nazi Germany. Their courage, devotion and sacrifices will never be forgotten by future generations, and least of all, in this assembly.

God save the King.

I would like to welcome the students of Georges Vanier Catholic School, who will be visiting. They’re from my riding of Brampton Centre.

Welcome to Queen’s Park.

I would like to welcome a good friend and the president of my riding association, Julian Ciaccia, to Queen’s Park.

Julian, welcome.

It gave me great pleasure to look up into the gallery and to see my friend Pat Daly, who is the chair of the Hamilton Catholic school board, here with Friends and Advocates for Catholic Education.

Welcome to Queen’s Park.

I’m pleased to introduce a fantastic constituent of mine. He may represent the riding of Durham, but it’s always a pleasure and honour to see Erin O’Toole here in the House, as well as his father, John O’Toole.

Welcome to Queen’s Park.

I would also like to welcome my great constituent Alex Yuan from Richmond Hill. Not only is he working very hard along with us in MSA—and I welcome him to Queen’s Park.

I’d also like to welcome, working together with us, Erin O’Toole.

It gives me great pleasure to welcome to the Legislature today three constituents of mine: Patti Ley, Lynda Kay, and Peter Dounoukos, all of whom are great leaders and dear friends in our community.

Welcome to Queen’s Park.

I’d also like to extend sincere appreciation to a mentor of mine: a principled leader, Erin O’Toole.

Thank you for being here, Erin.

I’d like to welcome to the Legislature Friends and Advocates for Catholic Education and in particular, Anne O’Brien, Brian Beal, and Barbara Dobrowolski.

Welcome to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.

I also want to welcome the great member for Durham at the federal level and his father: Erin O’Toole and John O’Toole.

Welcome to our House. Thank you, gentlemen.

I, too, would like to welcome Friends and Advocates for Catholic Education—wonderful partners—along with the representatives from OECTA. Of course, Archbishop Leo is with us, and a variety of other bishops and priests, and our colleagues from OCSTA, led by Patrick Daly.

Thank you all for your amazing work and for the leadership you provide for Catholic students in Ontario.

I’d like to welcome our good friend Alex Yuan, who is a community leader visiting our House this morning.

I feel honoured to warmly welcome to Parliament my good friend Mr. Alex Yuan, the chair of RHRA.

Welcome.