My question is to the Premier. Earlier this month, Ken and Lorena Dillon from Chapleau were biking at Shoals Provincial Park when they suffered an accident. They tried to call 911 but the call wouldn’t go through because there was no cell coverage.

No one in Ontario should have to wait for hours on the side of a highway in an emergency because there is no cell service. Is the Premier going to ensure that everyone in Ontario can call 911 when they are in an emergency?

For some in northern Ontario, the situation is even worse. They have to find a 10-digit number to call during an emergency. The services are there, but 911 is not.

The patchwork system of cell coverage and emergency numbers in the north is putting lives on the line. Will the Premier commit to ensuring that 911 can be contacted in every part of the province where there is an emergency?

The bill enacts the Abuse Prevention Week Act, 2022.

The act proclaims the week beginning on the first Sunday in October in each year as Abuse Prevention Week. The act establishes an Abuse Prevention Framework Advisory Committee to provide recommendations to the Minister of Education, and requires the Minister of Education to issue curriculum guidelines respecting abuse prevention in accordance with the committee’s recommendation. The curriculum is required to be taught during Abuse Prevention Week.

This petition is titled, “Petition for an Official Statement of Apology on Behalf of the” Government “of Ontario to the McIntyre Powder Project Miners.

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas over 25,000 Ontario mine workers were subjected by their employers to mandatory, non-consensual inhalation of finely ground aluminum dust known as ‘McIntyre Powder’ between 1943 and 1979, as a scientifically unproven industrial medical treatment for the lung disease silicosis; and

“Whereas the government of Ontario supported and sanctioned the McIntyre Powder aluminum prophylaxis program despite the availability of safe and proven alternatives to effective silicosis prevention measures such as improved dust control and ventilation, and also despite expert evidence from the international scientific and medical community as early as 1946 that recommended against the use of McIntyre Powder treatments; and

“Whereas the miners who were forced to inhale McIntyre Powder experienced distress, immediate and long-term health effects from their experiences and exposures associated with aluminum inhalation treatments, as documented through their participation in the McIntyre Powder Project;

“We, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to provide an official statement of apology to the McIntyre Powder Project miners.”

I completely agree with this petition. I affix my name and present it to page Juliet to bring it down to the Clerks’ table.

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas Ontario’s social assistance rates are well below Canada’s official Market Basket Measure poverty line and woefully inadequate to cover the basic costs of food and rent;

“Whereas individuals on the Ontario Works program receive just $733 per month and individuals on the Ontario Disability Support Program receive just $1,169 per month, only 41% and 65% of the poverty line;

“Whereas the Ontario government has not increased social assistance rates since 2018, and Canada’s inflation rate in January 2022 was 5.1%, the highest rate in 30 years;

“Whereas the government of Canada recognized through the CERB program that a ‘basic income’ of $2,000 per month was the standard support required by individuals who lost their employment during the pandemic;

“We, the undersigned citizens of Ontario, petition the Legislative Assembly to increase social assistance rates to a base of $2,000 per month for those on Ontario Works, and to increase other programs accordingly.”

I agree with this petition, will affix my name and present it to, again, page Juliet to bring it down to the Clerks’ table.