It’s a pleasure to rise in the House this morning.

Last week we spent time in our collective ridings honouring and remembering our veterans as we proudly wore our poppies and attended Remembrance Day services. Mr. Speaker, I’d like to pay tribute today in my comments about the Royal Canadian Legions that pepper our ridings and our communities across the province. In my riding of Simcoe–Grey, there are 12 Legions, and each branch has a proud history of supporting veterans and serving the communities. They act as community hubs. They host important civic events, from Veterans’ Week events to political events, from community events to private celebrations. Alliston, Angus, Beeton, Collingwood, Creemore, Everett, Lisle, New Lowell, Stayner, Thornbury, Tottenham and Wasaga Beach all have thriving, active Legions that serve these communities.

On Saturday, November 5, I had the great opportunity to spend a night at the Collingwood Legion at a dinner in honour of our veterans in preparation for Remembrance Day. As I sat in the facility, I was reminded that during the pandemic, the Collingwood Legion served as the overflow facility for the Collingwood General and Marine Hospital—18 beds. It served a vital purpose as an overflow unit and, during a number of the waves, had many beds filled. That was one way that a Legion can help work with our communities and collaborate with our communities to support them.

Last Friday, on Remembrance Day, I had the privilege of going to the Alliston Legion and sitting with Albert, one of the last remaining World War II veterans. He’s 98 and his hearing isn’t great, but we had a wonderful conversation, and so it’s wonderful to be able to rise and pay tribute to our veterans like Albert.

During the course of that meal, I was reminded by the speaker there that the Alliston Legion had received a vital grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation for much-necessary capital improvements. These facilities serve our ridings, and I want to thank the executives and presidents of each of the Legions for their great work.

I just want to acknowledge and thank the member for Simcoe–Grey, somebody who was the mayor of Collingwood. I had the privilege of many, many memories of Cranberry Resort in Collingwood.

Madam Speaker, this bill is an extremely important bill in the right direction. As we heard from the minister, she outlined in her remarks that this legislation did not just come overnight. It was based on hours and hours of consultation with faculty staff, presidents, students and several written submissions to the ministry.

What was telling about these consultations is that while the ministry went looking for a general conversation on how to address sexual violence on campus, almost all of these conversations were steered by participants towards faculty or student sexual violence. That is why, Madam Speaker, what we’re doing in Bill 26 is we’re addressing that issue so that the leaders of today and tomorrow can succeed.

For example, Steve Orsini, the president and CEO of the Council of Ontario Universities, said, “Ontario’s universities are committed to ensure student, faculty and staff safety and strongly condemn all forms of sexual violence or harassment. Building on today’s announcement, all of our universities have developed and continue to regularly review their institutional sexual violence policies and processes to ensure that they maintain a survivor-centric approach.”

This is the kind of help and support that we’ve got for the bill, which is a step in the right direction.