The member for Kingston and the Islands.

I thank the members for their eloquent tributes as together we give thanks for the life and public service of Jim Taylor.

Orders of the day?

The House recessed from 0955 to 1015.

No further business.

Today I want to talk about cricket, a sport loved, and even religiously followed, by over 1.5 billion people across the world. Many of them call Ontario their home—immigrants from Europe, Asia, Africa, the Caribbean and Australia who have brought their love of cricket to this beautiful province.

There are over 25 teams just in my riding of Scarborough Southwest. Yet a complete lack of infrastructure and barriers to accessing practice space, even when the city fields sit empty, has left local cricket groups with little to no options.

Cricket enthusiasts, like Hossain Shumon from our community, camp overnight on the playing pitch—that’s the centre of the field that allows cricket to be played—just so they can play in the morning. Because there are so few fields, while he’s doing that, usually there are a few others who will show up, realizing that they missed their opportunity.

Let me tell you about another cricket organizer named Gulam Imran who has been working tirelessly for the past two years just to secure a regular space to play cricket during the summer. There are empty fields and recreational facilities across the city, especially in Scarborough, but local youths who live in these communities and want to play a sport that they love are turned away. By comparison, cities like Brampton, Milton and Mississauga actually have cricket facilities for residents to use.

Our local youths deserve better. It is time that Scarborough and Toronto residents had the same opportunity to play a sport that they love.

It is my pleasure this morning to bring this House news about two recent events in Bruce–Grey–Owen Sound.

The first is the two fantastic fall fairs I had the privilege of attending this past weekend. In the great community of Durham, our colleague the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs was there with us to see this excellent fair. There was a great presence from the local agricultural community, including many members of local 4H clubs—lots of future farmers showing their skills. Then I was off to Desboro for their fall fair opening. The Desboro fair always starts with a great parade through town. I was pleased to be part of that parade as MP Alex Ruff and I rode in a manure spreader. I understand that Bill Murdoch started this great tradition, and it was lots of fun. Congratulations and thanks to the organizers of both these great fall fairs.

The other event I want to highlight and make this House aware of was the Stanley Cup coming to Sauble Beach on August 29. Kurtis MacDermid, who plays for the Stanley Cup champions, Colorado Avalanche, grew up in Sauble Beach and played minor hockey there and in nearby Shallow Lake. Kurtis and his family were all there, along with an estimated 10,000 local people. The sun shone brightly on Lord Stanley’s cup in Kurtis’s hometown. Congratulations on your great achievement, Kurtis. You’ve made our great Grey-Bruce community very proud.

Good morning. It is an honour to rise in the Legislature and bring awareness to great organizations, celebrations and events in my home riding of Oakville.

I want to thank the Kerr Village Business Improvement Area, the BIA, for keeping Oakville a friendly, successful community for all business owners and residents. I would like to thank the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport for bringing the Reconnect Festival and Event Program to Oakville. I would also like to thank the minister for your support for the funding for our community with a generous investment of $173,000, and specifically $55,000 to the Kerr Village BIA.

Each year the Kerr Village BIA organizes a September weekend event. Tonight I’m excited to be attending the opening of the seventh annual Kerrfest and Kerrfest Kids festival event, which runs from Thursday, September 8 to September 11.

To kick off the fall season, the Kerr festival will be bringing delicious food vendors and incredible live musical entertainment, including—many of you may remember—the Canadian rock band Chilliwack; an east coast night with Jimmy Rankin, and the Irish Descendants; 54-40; the Box, Bill Durst; and many more.

Kerrfest will have something for all ages and Kerrfest Kids will provide a meet-and-greet with characters from PAW Patrol and Bob the Builder.

Not only will I be attending the Kerr Festival tonight, I’m proud to have my constituency office located right in the heart of the Kerr Village community. Kerr Street has a welcoming, eclectic, trendy vibe that merges small-town hospitality with urban revitalization.

I invite everybody in this Legislature to bring their family, have a staycation and visit Oakville for the entertainment this weekend at the Kerr Village festival.

Tomorrow, September 9, represents fetal alcohol awareness day, a day that shares valuable information and spreads awareness about this spectrum disorder.

Approximately 583,000 individuals across our province have fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, also known to many as FASD. This is a diagnostic term used to describe the impact on the brain and body of individuals who have been prenatally exposed to alcohol. Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder is a lifelong disability. One thing is certain: These individuals need special supports to help them live full and meaningful lives.

Speaker, FASD is a complex disability. It is challenging to both recognize and diagnose. That being said, FASD is one of Canada’s leading spectrum disabilities. Shockingly, this disorder is two and a half times more common than autism. Approximately 4% of Canadians have FASD.

Tomorrow the city of St. Thomas, which is in my riding, will participate in the FAS Bell Concordance. I would like to encourage all members to take the time tomorrow to learn something new about FASD and share it with their friends, family and colleagues. Together let us further educate and effectively communicate our way to eliminating fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.

Last night, we heard vibrant testimonies as to why private member’s Bill 9, Safe and Healthy Communities Act (Addressing Gun Violence), moved by the member for Scarborough–Guildwood, is so important to support. Bill 9 is about supporting victims. It’s about supporting families traumatized by gun violence and about making our communities safe. Bill 9 is also about prevention, which is so important in the fight against this public health issue.

Last night, the government referred to their Roadmap to Wellness as a reason to say no to Bill 9, but the Roadmap to Wellness doesn’t mention gun violence even one time. So what the government is saying to these victims is, “You can wait until we develop a program for you.” Well, Bill 9 would make services available to an existing system with expanded capacity. It is difficult to understand why any member in this House would refuse to support such common-sense measures.

Dans ma circonscription d’Ottawa–Vanier, l’impact de la violence armée est trop bien ressenti. Quarante-quatre fusillades ont eu lieu cette année à Ottawa. Il est insoutenable de continuer d’aller à des funérailles sans pouvoir expliquer aux parents et aux proches ce que le gouvernement fait concrètement pour enrayer la violence armée.

Le projet de loi 9 de la députée de Scarborough–Guildwood est un pas concret pour les aider. J’encourage tous les membres de cette Chambre à voter en faveur.

Good morning. Yesterday, I introduced the Till Death Do Us Part legislation for the third time. I first became involved with reunification of couples in long-term care back in December 2017. In 2019, I learned of the story of Jim McLeod and his wife, Joan, who now have been separated for four and a half years. He travelled here to listen to the debate in 2019 and wasn’t impressed that the bill sat in committee for three years before prorogation.

Recently, I learned of the quest of my constituent Debbie Wang. She is on a challenge to reunite her father, who is in a long-term-care home here in Toronto, as it’s the only place he can receive culturally appropriate care, and her mother, who is an ALC patient at Cambridge Memorial Hospital and will soon be forced to move to a long-term-care facility not of her choosing, due to Bill 7. Debbie’s father said his ongoing separation from his mother is making him lose his will to live. Ontario is failing them.

I’ve raised this issue with successive ministers over the years. The pandemic obviously revealed how broken the caring of seniors has become under successive governments. One could argue rectifying the situation is a matter of compassion and humanity.

The government House leader has said that in the wake of the passage of Bill 7, every effort will be made to keep patients “as close as possible” to their families. This is your chance to put those words into action. Let’s get it done.

My office has noticed a disturbing trend: More than ever, we are seeing families, especially single-support families, being pushed onto the street. These parents are terrified for their children and tell us their only next option is to buy a tent and hope for the best.

Speaker, I came to this House four years ago to help children realize their potential. Now, after four years of this government, I am seeing more and more of them live in poverty. How will these children ever be able to access or reach their potential with nowhere safe to live, no access to school and no one looking out for them? We’re going in the wrong direction.

The opposition has put forward solution after solution. Today, my colleagues and I will re-table the Rent Stabilization Act to help keep people in their homes. I look forward to all members supporting this important legislation.

This government also needs to listen to the people of Ontario and finance and build new affordable and non-market rental homes. Years have been wasted as this government hopes private, for-profit developers will create truly affordable housing. Hope is not a plan. This government needs to actually do the building that will help families who live in poverty.

When will enough be enough? How many children need to live on the street before this government will recognize that Ontario is in a state of crisis?

Eli Palfreyman turned 20 just this summer, on July 2. Several weeks later, he was named captain of the Ayr Centennials. On August 30, he brought his team to the ice in a pre-season tournament game. Eli was proud, handsome, smiling, vibrant. He never came home. Eli collapsed and passed away in the locker room during the first intermission of the game. His cause of death is unknown.

Eli was one of Cambridge’s sons, coming up with the Cambridge Hawks before forging on with the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League, playing for the Kitchener Dutchmen and Pelham Panthers and joining the Ayr Centennials last year.

With friends and former teammates throughout the Ontario hockey diaspora, Eli’s influence and loss is felt everywhere. Known to his friends as Ziggy, Zigs, even Fry Man, Eli is remembered as a bright spark, a constant source of energy and laughter, the guy who could always be relied on to get your mood up if you were feeling own.

Brett, Eli’s dad, knows that his son was a leader, a person that people looked up to, everyone’s best friend.

Losing Eli has hit the hockey community hard. I know that in Eli and his mom, Tammy, and his dad and his sister, Ella, families across Ontario see themselves. They see their own son, their brother, their friend, their teammate. In grief, they are united.

A favourite author of mine, Terry Pratchett, wrote that no one is truly dead until the ripples they cause in the world finally die away. In that case, from what I have heard of Eli, he will live forever. Rest in peace, number 17.

I’m happy this morning; I have a team of friends from Richmond Hill and Mississauga. Please join me to welcome presidents and directors from the Dawoodi Bohras of Canada, including the president of the Toronto chapter, Zoeb Galiakotwala; the president of the Mississauga chapter, Behlah Ayman; Mansur Kanchwala; Qusai Kanchwala; Habib Tawawala; Murtaza Abid; Nafeesa Kapacee; and Anwar Bawangaonwala. Welcome to all of them. I am happy they are bringing greetings from His Holiness Dr. Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin. Welcome to the chamber.

I am really excited to have family members of mine here today: Dr. Deb McNaughton from Grand Bend, Ontario, and Barb Newcomb from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

We have always said that we need to look at these challenges in a way that goes outside of what we are currently doing in the province of Ontario. As the member opposite knows, we do have clinics, like the Shouldice Hospital, that currently operate and have operated for decades in the province of Ontario. We will continue to work with those partners—all partnerships. We’ve seen innovative models with community care paramedics. We’ve seen innovative models with 911 off-loads, with dedicated off-load nurse practitioners who are able to take those emergency department patients so that the paramedics can go back out onto the road.

All of these are innovations, new ways of approaching an existing problem that has been plaguing our health care system for, frankly, years and years. We’re going to make sure that those innovations are available to all communities. I’ve often spoken about the paramedic program that’s available in 49 areas. We’re going to expand that, because it’s working.

We’re working with our partners. When they bring forward ideas and suggestions that we see have an opportunity to improve the health human resources in Ontario, we’re doing that. This is not an Ontario-exclusive issue. We’re seeing it in jurisdictions across Canada—indeed, the world. But we’re making sure that where we have opportunities for engagement, for improvements, we’re doing that, and, of course, most recently that’s the college of nurses with our internationally trained educators.

It is my pleasure to introduce Konrad Noronha, who is the parent of Apollo, our page today. Welcome to the Legislature.

I am seeking unanimous consent that, notwithstanding standing order 40(e), the independent members be allotted a total of five minutes as a group to respond to ministerial statements today.

I’m very pleased to introduce Sister Patty Coates, the president of the Ontario Federation of Labour. I am sure the minister was going to introduce her. As you know, Speaker, the OFL is Canada’s largest labour federation, representing more than one million of Ontario’s workers. Welcome to the Legislature of Ontario.

A couple of weeks ago, I was in Brampton to watch the Whitby lacrosse team win its eighth Minto Cup title as the best junior lacrosse team in Canada. They edged out the Edmonton Miners 6-5 in the old Brampton arena for a 2-1 win in the best-of-three Junior A lacrosse champion series final. It ends a long and successful season for the team, but it didn’t come easily. Parker Pipher scored the winning goal with just under 10 minutes to play in the third period. But the real drama came with just 30 seconds to go in the contest, when Edmonton missed on a penalty shot, sealing the title for the Whitby team.

The Minto Cup championship concludes an outstanding season for the Whitby team, who knocked off St. Catharines, Orangeville, and Toronto Beaches in league playoffs on the way to the Minto Cup. Overall, they only lost one game all season—one game.

Congratulations to the team members, coaches and management on becoming Canadian Junior A lacrosse champions for the eighth time.

As a parent or a caregiver, it is always a pleasure to see our children in action. I’d like to welcome Farah Rahim, proud mother of page Zara Hameed, with auntie Israni Coordy, as proud father Azeem Hameed is joining us online. Welcome to Queen’s Park.