I rise today to recognize May as Asthma Awareness Month and to celebrate the anniversary of Ryan’s Law.

Speaker, eight years ago, my predecessor for Elgin–Middlesex–London, Jeff Yurek, introduced Ryan’s Law as a private member’s bill in this Legislature. This legislation was introduced because of a horrific incident that occurred in my riding on October 9, 2012. Ryan Gibbons passed away while at school after suffering a severe asthma attack. Ryan was unable to access his inhaler due to school policies and procedures which kept his inhaler locked in the principal’s office. Ryan’s Law mandated that students were allowed to access their inhalers and that schools were required to develop and maintain asthma policies and procedures to better protect asthmatic students.

Approximately one in five children are living with asthma in Canada. Asthma is a chronic lung disease that can make breathing difficult. That means that approximately 400,000 students with asthma in Ontario schools are now protected by Ryan’s Law.

I want to thank patient advocates such as Sandra Gibbons, Ryan’s mother, who played an instrumental role in advocating for Ryan’s Law, as well as the Lung Health Foundation for their advocacy, programming and services. We had an excellent meeting earlier this week, and I appreciate their strong advocacy.

Mr. Speaker, Orléans lost an important community leader earlier this month. On May 1, after a long battle with cancer and surrounded by family, local legend Al Tweddle passed away.

Al was a chemist, an engineer, a sportsman, a musician, a conservationist and, above all, a loving husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather. Al was a community leader and a trailblazer in Orléans for decades.

Since the 1960s, Al and his previously deceased wife, Helen, were pillars in the Queenswood Heights neighbourhood of Orléans. This is the neighbourhood I grew up in, and while I didn’t know Al back then, I knew who he was. He was the man who maintained the outdoor rinks and who helped run the community centre. He was the man who took care of the tennis courts and so much more. In fact, Al took care of outdoor rinks in Orléans for over 50 years.

I got to know Al when I joined the community association and later served as president. He was a constant fixture and an important sounding board for new ideas.

Al had a great passion for nature and the outdoors. He was instrumental in developing Petrie Island into a beautiful park and ecological reserve, as the founder of Friends of Petrie Island. At Friends of Petrie Island, he spent countless hours maintaining the trails, planting trees, cleaning the beach, and educating visitors about the wildlife and history of the island.

He touched the lives of many people with his generosity, kindness and dedication.

While he is gone, his legacy will not be forgotten.

Rest in peace, Al. You will be missed by everyone in Queenswood Heights and right across Orléans.

Today I am recognizing Ms. Melania Smith, a commercial landowner and a resident of Scarborough Centre, who is sitting in the gallery with her husband, Steve Smith.

Melania has been nominated for the RBC Canadian Women Entrepreneur Awards, in the category of social change and national impact.

In addition, Ms. Smith converted her unused parcel of land into a thriving community garden after observing signs of local food insecurity. This pesticide-free produce goes to the Scarborough Centre for Healthy Communities food bank.

In addition, she works with an international organization serving remote and rural parts of India, where they serve up a midday nutritional meal program that feeds thousands of students and their families, donate school supplies, and mentor women to become more confident, self-sufficient and supportive of their family and neighbours.

Congratulations, Melania, for the work you have been doing at home and abroad.

It’s an honour to introduce the people of Garden River First Nation, who are here at Queen’s Park with their chief, council and elders. Please welcome Chief Andy Rickard, Darwin Belleau, Cindy Belleau-Jones, Brandi Nolan, Trevor Solomon, Chris Thibodeau, Dan Tice, Albert Williams, Terry Belleau, Nevaeh Pine, and Darrell Boissoneau.

I’d also like to recognize, from the Anishinabek Nation, regional Deputy Grand Council Chief Travis Boissoneau as well as the CAO of Garden River, Jauvonne Kitto.

Welcome to Queen’s Park.

That concludes our members’ statements for this morning.

Joining us in the Speaker’s gallery is the delegation from Quebec. La délégation québécoise est avec nous aujourd’hui dans la tribune du Président :

—M^me Nathalie Roy, Présidente de l’Assemblée nationale du Québec;

—M^me Suzanne Tremblay, députée de Hull;

—M^me Marie-Belle Gendron, députée de Châteauguay;

—M^me Brigitte B. Garceau, députée de Robert-Baldwin; et

—M. Siegfried Peters, secrétaire général de l’Assemblée nationale du Québec.

Please join me in warmly welcoming our guests to the Legislature today.

Applause.

From Faith Baptist Church in Huntsville in the great riding of Parry Sound–Muskoka, we have Associate Pastor Harry Toews. And from the outreach team and church family at large, joining him are: Rodger Flemming, Bill Frankland, Doug Graves, Andrew Hall, Carolann Page, Bob Switzer, Mary Switzer, Rosemary Toews, and Mike Zammit.

Welcome to Queen’s Park.

I’d to introduce to the Legislative Assembly Geoff Quirt, who was at one time an assistant deputy minister of long-term care and the Ontario Seniors’ Secretariat.

Geoff, thank you for your service to the province.

I would like to acknowledge page Liam Gunning, from my community of Newmarket–Aurora, who is serving as page captain today. Also joining us are Liam’s mom, Jen Gunning, and his little sister Isla Gunning, as well as his grandfather Geoff Quirt, who is a retired member of the OPS.

Liam, thank you for your service.

I’d like to introduce the sensational Sive Pausey from the Métis National Council. She’s also a constituent of beautiful Beaches–East York. She’s in the chamber today for the first time.

I also have the wonderful William Peat and the bubbly Beatriz Lôbo Campos from the Canada Ireland Foundation. They are working to build an Irish immigration event space museum on the waterfront.

And all of them are working tirelessly to build a better Ontario.

Welcome to our chamber.

It’s hard to follow the member from Kiiwetinoong in speaking the language, but I’m going to make my attempt: Remarks in Anishininiimowin. That was my attempt at thanking everybody, thanking the Creator for bringing us together. And we’re all amongst friends here.

I am proud to introduce, as the member for Algoma–Manitoulin, Ogiima Andy Rickard.

The councillors were introduced a little bit earlier: cultural manager and pipe-carrier Darrell Boissoneau; regional Deputy Grand Council Chief Travis Boissoneau; drummers Nathan Roy, Isaiah Cada, Jayden Wemigwans and Wayne Moberley; and the jingle dancer, Nevaeh Pine.

Welcome to Queen’s Park. Enjoy your day.

I would like to introduce a group of residents from Chesley: Faye Bell McClure, Brenda Scott, Ian Scott, Hazel Pratt, Jennifer Shaw, and Isobel Bell, as well as the CEO of the Ontario Health Coalition, Natalie Mehra.

Welcome to your House.

We have a UK delegation with us today, from the British Parliament: Lord Purvis of Tweed; Anum Qaisar, MP; Stephen Doughty, MP; Andrew Percy, MP; and Chris Brown, the UK delegation secretary.

Meegwetch, Speaker. Remarks in Anishininiimowin. This morning—it’s a good morning—I’m going to speak a little bit of my language, our Creator-given language.

Remarks in Anishininiimowin.

I say thank you to the community of Garden River First Nation, the Ojibways. It’s not every day that we get to speak our language in this place. This morning, I was gifted with this eagle feather, and then for me to speak a little bit of my language in this place—meegwetch.

I’d like to introduce a number of visitors to the chamber this morning.

First, I’d like to introduce Michau Van Speyk, an important autism and mental health advocate.

I’d like to introduce Rameez and Sana Mufti, who are the siblings of my outstanding OLIP intern, Alia Mufti.

Finally, I would like to introduce the following people from the community of Chesley and the Ontario Health Coalition: Brenda Scott, Ian Scott, Hazel Pratt, Jennifer Shaw, Faye Bell McClure, Sharon Burley, Doug Walsh, Audrey Walsh, Isobel Bell, and Natalie Mehra.

Welcome to the chamber.

This morning I’d like to introduce my daughter, Kathryn Pierre, who is here in the members’ gallery joining us from Vancouver.

I don’t think they’ve made it in the chamber yet, but I want to welcome the member of Parliament for Lambton–Kent–Middlesex, Lianne Rood, as well as one of the staff members, Dalton Holloway, who is going to be here shortly.

I have a number of people here today with the Greater Niagara Chamber of Commerce. They’re here for meetings with various members. We have Hugo Chesshire, Mishka Balsom, Grady Peller, John Peller, Del Rollo, Richard Linley, Debbie Zimmerman, Aaron Dobbin, Paul Speck, and Carolyn Hurst.

Welcome to Queen’s Park.

I would like to introduce—and thank you for coming—wonderful youth from Thornhill: Nicholas Chernyakhovsky, Eric Dobre, Jaian Dhebar, Ethan Ulman, Delan Mete, Denis Averbukh, Noa Fishbain, Jonathan Yagudaev, Abdul Wajid Ishaq, and Alan Annenkov.

I would also very much like to thank a faithful provincial servant from the Ministry of the Attorney General, Mr. Peter Dewar.

I would like to take a moment to acknowledge Dominic Cadotte, one of our current pages and a constituent of mine. Dominic is one of only a handful of pages to represent Scarborough–Rouge Park during my time in office, so I want to extend my tremendous thanks for his service to the Ontario Legislature.

I have another group to introduce—and it is our powerful page Lazo Kasekas. His family is here today in the chamber: Kate, Konst, Vanna, and Eleanor Kasekas.

Welcome.