It is exciting to share some great news from London, Ontario, with this House today. Like many communities in Ontario, London is experiencing a homelessness crisis. I’m proud to say that over the past three years, our government has invested nearly $4.4 billion in housing and homelessness support through our municipal and Indigenous program partners.

However, homelessness remains a pressing issue, as we all know. In response to this crisis, over 260 citizens came together to make transformational change. They came from a range of sectors, including health and social services, institutional health care, education, emergency services, business and economic development, city officials and staff from provincial and federal ministries. Throughout the last three months, a comprehensive whole-of-community systems response has been devised and approved by the municipal council, with implementation to begin immediately in keeping with the critical circumstances on our streets.

Inspired by this community-wide effort, a fund was created called fundforchange.ca, initiated by one anonymous London family with an incredible—I repeat, incredible—gift of $25 million and an additional $5 million in matching funds, inspiring the rest of the community to join this noble cause. Impressive indeed, Speaker.

I, along with my colleagues from London in this Legislature representing London, our Forest City, hope that this magnificent philanthropic response, supported with incredible financial support from the citizens of our city, will prove to be a model that can be applied across Ontario, and indeed across Canada.