I appreciate the opportunity to engage with my friend from Essex. It’s so exciting to see this development happen. I was just at an announcement a few weeks ago in my riding, where Six Nations of the Grand River will be heading up an incredible battery project in order to store electricity and put it back on the grid in order to save money and where it can pay itself out. It’s an incredible partnership between Indigenous people and other companies in order to make this.

So we’re seeing the ability for resource extraction in the north in order to have a positive benefit. We need more of that. But I was curious if the member could speak directly to—because it seems to be a lot of the questions today are on exactly what this act will be able to accomplish for our northern and Indigenous communities.

We don’t have too many 15 years in our whole lives. It’s just not acceptable to take 15 years to build a mine. Why is it so important that qualified professionals certify all aspects of a closure plan, through you, Speaker, to the member?

I’d like to thank the Minister of Mines and the member from Essex for their presentation.

The minister discussed diamond drilling and working with Indigenous peoples and working together, whereas the member from Essex talked about consultations. I hope that the minister or the parliamentary assistant will assure the House that when building more mines, such as this bill is titled, that there will be free, prior and informed consent from Indigenous partners on each new site.

My question for the member from Essex is, could you please define free, prior and informed consent for the House?

It’s an honour to rise today to share with this Ontario Legislature some exciting news from Sarnia–Lambton. Yesterday, the Sarnia Police Service held a special swearing-in ceremony to welcome their new deputy chief of police, Julie Craddock. Deputy Chief Craddock joins the Sarnia police after establishing an impressive record with the Halton Regional Police Service. She began her career in 1994 with the OPP and joined the Halton police in 1995, where she worked in criminal investigations, traffic, recruiting, community mobilization and front-line operations, rising from the rank of constable to inspector. She is also the very first female and Indigenous deputy chief in the Sarnia police force’s history.

I am extremely confident that Deputy Chief Craddock’s strong leadership skills and fresh outlook will help to build on the ongoing work of the entire Sarnia Police Service to protect and serve this community. While my legislative responsibilities prevented me from attending yesterday’s swearing-in ceremony, I wanted to take this opportunity to officially welcome Deputy Chief Craddock to the Sarnia Police Service and the wonderful Sarnia–Lambton community. Best wishes for a great future in your new role.

We’ll move to the next question.

Last question?

Second reading debate deemed adjourned.

I thank the member from Don Valley North for that question.

First of all, a competent professional such as my good friend from Windsor–Tecumseh, who is a qualified engineer—he might not be interested in this type of work, but a competent professional such as that member would be required to certify a closure plan, because we want the plans certified; we want them reviewed by competent professionals, and we want them to be, essentially, validated. This has to be done.

I thank again the member for that question because he highlights an important thing. Nothing in the environmental legislation of the province of Ontario is changed by this proposed legislation. In fact, it requires competent professionals, qualified professionals to certify that a closure plan is, in fact, in accord and compliant with Ontario’s environmental—

I want to dedicate my member’s statement today to the leaders and volunteers at Muslim Welfare Canada. A few weeks ago, I joined the volunteers at Muslim Welfare Canada and Essentials First Canada to prepare hygiene kits for earthquake victims in Türkiye and Syria. It was truly a humbling experience to join the volunteers who took off time from their weekend to assemble these kits.

Madam Speaker, this was one of the many examples of Muslim Welfare Canada’s great work they have been doing for the last 30 years. Muslim Welfare Canada was established in 1993 by Major Abbas and Sarwar Jahan Begum. This organization began as a small halal food bank in Scarborough, Ontario, under the banner of the Muslim Welfare Centre of Toronto. Today, Muslim Welfare Canada is involved in the fight against poverty and homelessness. It focuses on providing food, health care services, culturally sensitive shelter for women and their children, and healthy nutrition to school-aged children and seniors.

Madam Speaker, one of their most notable projects—it’s one of my favourite projects by Muslim Welfare Canada—is their annual fill-a-backpack event.

Muslim Welfare Canada not only supports the communities locally but also focuses on projects internationally by promoting literacy through free schools, access to clean water and providing relief assistance. Muslim Welfare Canada’s dedication to supporting Canadians and beyond is a true example that we can make a difference when we come together.

Two Saturdays ago, on the 25th of February, I was able to participate in Brantford’s Coldest Night of the Year walk fundraiser. The Coldest Night of the Year is a family-friendly walk to raise money for local charities serving people experiencing hurt, hunger and homelessness. In my riding of Brantford–Brant, 181 walkers on 31 teams got together and walked for either two or five kilometres.

The Coldest Night of the Year was in support of Why Not Youth Centre in Brantford. At Why Not Youth Centre, they believe that every young person is important and deserves all the help they can get to overcome their challenges and to meet their goals. Nearly every teen who comes through their door is struggling in some way, be it with homelessness, mobility, bullying or unsafe living conditions. Their team of youth workers are dedicated to working with our local vulnerable youth to make sure that no one goes unseen or unheard or falls through the cracks in the system. This is why Why Not matters so much—because the only thing that can help change the lives of young people heading towards poverty, homelessness and total defeat is real, positive, supportive relationships. And that’s exactly what they do at Why Not. Some people see things and say, “Why?” They dream of things that never were and say, “Why not?”

Speaker, as you know, there are many parts to the housing crisis that people face in this province. I want to talk this morning about the soaring rents that people are facing and the crushing burdens that it places on them. Landlords right now can reset the rents at whatever the market will bear when a person leaves a unit, and that means that they do set those rents as high as they possibly can. What’s the impact? It means that young people can’t move out of their parents’ homes when they want to. It means that parents who have a new baby can’t afford to rent a new unit, because the new units will be far more expensive than the one they’re in. It means that there is a huge incentive for landlords to push out tenants so they can put in place huge rent increases.

Speaker, I call on the government to bring in real rent control, to bring in a system so that rent levels are retained at the point they were set for when a tenant was there and are not increased when someone moves out. The province needs this. People need this. The government needs to act.

Thank you to the member from Essex for his remarks. In his remarks, he talked about financial security and closure plans. Timiskaming–Cochrane has got a long history of mining, a long history—before financial security and closure plans—of unclosed mines, of holes in the ground, of places where the government had to step in—mines that have never been claimed. And since financial security and closure plans, people have gained confidence in the mining companies that are in Timiskaming–Cochrane now, like Alamos Gold and Agnico Eagle. People have confidence.

Is the member seeming to say that financial security for closure of mines isn’t a good thing?

In the town of Cochrane, there’s a family health team that has the funding for, I believe, five doctors, but they can’t find five doctors. They have one. They would love to be able to switch that to some nurse practitioner funding, while just a few miles away in the town of Iroquois Falls, a nurse practitioner couldn’t get funding or approval through OHIP, so she’s actually operating a private, nurse practitioner practise mostly for the Mennonite community. She really wants to be part of the system. There is funding not very far away. And yet, we’re failing on both sides.

We’re training more doctors. Great, but that’s going to take a while. We’re looking at doctors from other areas. That’s also going to take a while to bring them to the north. Let’s look at what we have, what we can work with and look for solutions.

We know that it has been difficult for internationally trained professionals, such as professional engineers, to become licensed in Ontario. Ontario is committed to reducing red tape to increase the province’s competitiveness, strengthen supply chains and make it easier to interact with services.

The licensing and regulating body for professional engineering is introducing changes to its licence application process that will make applying for an engineering licence more efficient, transparent and fair. Speaker, starting May 15, 2023, PEO’s application process will ensure new applicants receive a registration decision within six months. It will also launch an improved online application system on July 1, 2023. The new application rules for obtaining a PEO licence comply with new requirements set by the provincial government under the Fair Access to Regulated Professions and Compulsory Trades Act.

This change is welcome news for those seeking a licence through the PEO. It is also great news for our province as we seek to attract and retain skilled talent that we count on to help build and grow Ontario.

Speaker, by removing unnecessary burdens and barriers, Ontario leads the way to innovation, flexibility and progress.

I want to take this opportunity to tell you more about the private member’s bill that I introduced yesterday, because I think it’s really important.

After the tragic death of Draven Graham last year, I knew something needed to be done. Draven was an 11-year-old boy with autism who passed away in Lindsay, Ontario, after leaving his home.

My sincerest condolences are with the Graham family during this difficult time. The memory of Draven will live on through his loved ones and all who knew him.

Something needed to be done. It was clear that there was a gap that needed to be addressed.

This new bill, if passed, would open up the Missing Persons Act, 2018, and amend it to include a vulnerable persons alert.

It is a scary experience when a loved one goes missing, especially someone who is vulnerable, because they may not realize the entirety of the situation they are in and could end up in a dangerous position.

I work really closely with families who have children with autism, and they told me what this bill would mean to them.

This morning, I was joined by the vice-president of the Ontario Autism Coalition, Tony Stravato, and several other families who are supporting this bill, because they know how important it is to have additional protections in place.

This alert would not just extend to children, it would extend to adults, as well. Shirley Love, a senior with dementia, passed away in Hamilton in December after she left her home, not dressed for the weather. Someone in her circumstances would be covered under the new alert.

The vulnerable persons alert would, if passed, provide police forces with an additional tool to help find people.

This bill is one more way that we can protect the ones we love and we know are in a dangerous situation. I hope that every member of this House will support this legislation.

Last week, I had the privilege to join the Premier and the Minister of Health at Credit Valley Hospital in Mississauga to celebrate a record-breaking, historic donation of $75 million to the Trillium Health Partners Foundation from Mississauga’s Orlando Corp., Canada’s largest privately owned real estate developer and landowner. I want to thank my friend Chairman Carlo Fidani, a great Italian Canadian community leader, for making the single-largest corporate donation to a hospital in Canadian history. The $75 million will support the complete reconstruction and expansion of the Mississauga Hospital in Mississauga–Lakeshore, which will become the largest and most advanced hospital in Canada. It includes $10 million to help build a new, urgently needed, two-floor mental health in-patient unit and $15 million for Trillium’s Institute for Better Health, to drive health research and innovation, to create a better and stronger health care system for everyone.

I want to thank my friend Raman Dua, the founder of Save Max Real Estate, for providing a patient’s view of what this donation will mean.

As the Premier said, our friend Hazel McCallion, Trillium’s honorary guardian, was smiling down on us.

Speaker, Orlando Corp. will match every dollar donated to the foundation at trilliumgiving.ca over the next 10 years. This will double the impact of their contribution, up to $150 million.

I ask all members to join me in recognizing Orlando Corp. and their incredible support for the Trillium Health Partners and the Mississauga Hospital.

On the eve of International Women’s Day, I would like to highlight just a few of the amazing women from my riding of Don Valley West who play a vital role in our community and serve as an inspiration to those around them, including myself. These are just some of the recent winners of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee award.

Shakhlo Sharipova is the founder of the autism support network in Thorncliffe Park and recently also won the Agnes Macphail Award. Shakhlo is an important advocate for children and their families seeking support.

Lisa Grogan-Green is the co-chair of the Go Green Youth Centre, an innovative, sustainable, biodiverse recreational space for the Thorncliffe Park and Flemingdon Park communities.

Susan Scandiffio, a long-time community volunteer, recognized that about half of the households in the Thorncliffe Park and Flemingdon Park neighbourhoods sat at or below the poverty line, even before COVID hit. So, during COVID, Susan helped found a food bank with the Neighbourhood Organization, which helps address food insecurity for some of these families and now serves over 2,200 households.

I want to thank all the incredible women in Don Valley West who work tirelessly to improve our community every day and I want to recognize and thank all the Queen’s Jubilee award recipients for their dedication to serving the community.

Ontario is fortunate to have one of the cleanest electricity grids in the world, over 90% emissions-free, and there’s one reason why: Our nuclear sector provided the emissions-free electricity to phase out coal-fired generation in Ontario, one of the largest greenhouse gas reductions ever. In fact, Bruce Power provided 70% of that electricity.

Last week, Bruce Power began their second refurbishment on unit 3, which is part of the Life-Extension Program that will allow the Bruce site to continue providing clean, reliable, affordable energy through 2064, over 40 years from today.

Bruce Power supports good jobs—22,000 indirect and direct jobs—employing some of the best-paying and highest-skilled workers in Ontario. Bruce Power’s head office is in my colleague Lisa Thompson’s riding of Huron–Bruce, but the refurbishment program has meant suppliers like BWXT and Makwa-Cahill are setting up shop in my riding of Bruce–Grey–Owen Sound, greatly supporting the local economy.

In addition, Bruce Power and its partners, including the Saugeen Ojibway Nation, are commercially producing life-saving medical isotopes like lutetium-177 on a scale never seen before thanks to their innovative new isotope delivery system.

Clean energy to help reach our climate goals, good jobs that support Ontario and innovations to help advance global health care. Thank you, Bruce Power and all your workers, for the great job.

I’d like to introduce my friend Amanda Meek who’s here today with Eli Lilly Canada. Welcome.

On my way up here, I ran into the autism advocates again. I want to welcome to the building, especially Michau, right over here. You’re without tire, my friend. Good to see you.

I would like to welcome the family of one of our great pages, Adam Penner from my riding of Windsor–Tecumseh. Adam is serving as a page captain today, and today Adam is joined by his dad Garth; his mom Bridget; his sister Sarah; and his grandmother Liz. Welcome to Queen’s Park, Penner family, and thank you for being here to support Adam as he supports us in the Legislature.

It is my pleasure to welcome to the Legislature members of AAAA Sanitation in the members’ gallery: Brent Bunker, co-owner and operator; and Kimberly Dakin. Welcome to Queen’s Park. We’re thrilled to have you here.