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.

I rise today with a heavy heart and heart-wrenching memories of innocent Tamils who perished during the last stages of the brutal war in Mullivaikkal in Vanni region in May 2009. This is an emotional moment for me and over 350,000 Tamil Ontarians. Today marks the 14th year of Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day. Heinous crimes committed by the chauvinist regime against the Tamil nation and hundreds of thousands of innocent lives taken away, including children and women, remain unpunished today. There is no truth. There is no reconciliation.

I am proud of our Premier and our government for passing Bill 104. Tamils can begin healing and can encourage Ontarians to learn about Tamil genocide.

We acknowledge the gravity of these crimes against humanity, honour the lives lost, and commit ourselves to raising awareness and passing the history to the next generation.

Today, I pay my deepest respects to those who have lost their lives. We understand the trauma and share the pain and suffering of those who have lost their loved ones.

Speaker, my constituents Deo Marshall and Adrianna reached out to my office to share the financial struggles that they are facing due to decisions made by their building’s condo board. Recently, they discovered that their condo board has accumulated $100,000 in fees, primarily due to an eviction—$70,000—and underpaid gas bills. The management of the condo board has requested all residents to pay approximately $700 by June 15 to cover these costs. Deo and Adrianna have been informed that their failure to meet this deadline could result in collections, which would have a detrimental impact on their credit scores. They are being penalized for the condo board’s incompetence and wrongdoing. These are seniors on fixed incomes who are now burdened with an unexpected financial obligation, with no offer of an alternative payment plan.

Speaker, this is not the first time we’re hearing such a story where condo residents are suffering due to the lack of legal protection and support for them. We have heard stories where condo residents have been forced to pay over $30,000 in mere days or face a lien on their property. Condo residents in Ontario are frustrated as there’s no effective regulator, no government agency and no tribunal they can turn to that can hear disputes such as this and resolve them in a quick and affordable manner.

This government must regulate and strengthen the Condominium Authority Tribunal’s jurisdiction to protect the rights of all residents—especially residents like Deo Marshall and Adrianna.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Please welcome a dear friend of mine from law school, Michael Sullivan, and his son J.J. Sullivan.

It’s shocking, Mr. Speaker, that somebody was talking about building a new hospital in York region—the new Southlake hospital.

In fact, we were actually talking about building a new Southlake hospital before the last election. It has been no secret; we’ve never made a secret of the fact that the people of York region, especially Southlake, need it to be rebuilt. I just don’t understand how it is that the Leader of the Opposition is not aware of this, because we’ve not tried to hide the fact.

In fact, we went into an election telling the people of the province of Ontario that we were going to make $50 billion worth of investments in health care because we had to rebuild a health care system that was left so sorely lacking by the Liberal and NDP coalition, which ignored health care for 15 years.

It is no secret, but welcome to the party. Perhaps now you will consider voting in favour of this massive investment, now that it’s no longer a secret to—

I would like to recognize the Lung Health Foundation of Canada. Folks are here today advocating in a very good way—CEO Jessica Buckley and policy lead Riley Sander.

Welcome to Queen’s Park.