Thank you, Speaker. Nice to see you in the chair this morning. Good morning, everybody.

More than usual, my body may be here in the Legislature, but my heart is back home. And the reason my heart is back home in Ottawa is linked to this tie I am wearing today. This week is Capital Pride in Ottawa, and Capital Pride is the moment where our city celebrates our gender diversity.

It’s a week where a talented crew, led by the executive director of Capital Pride Ottawa, Toby Whitfield, puts on event after event to mention that our city is open and inclusive to everyone, including, within minutes of this speech, there is going to be Family Drag Storytime, led by some of our city’s best and most talented drag queens, to welcome gender-diverse kids and their families in the story. There’s going to be Café au Gay tonight at Happy Goat Coffee at 35 Laurel Street. There will be a Capital Pride pageant for which people can buy tickets this Friday. There is going to be an amazing Capital Pride Parade this Sunday, starting at 1 p.m., marching through our downtown core.

I invite all the members of this House to visit our city and join us. Join your political party, join your faith community, join your community organization. For the first time in two years, let’s march and celebrate Capital Pride, and let’s also salute the donation target this year, Capital Rainbow Refuge, which welcomes gender-diverse people from all over the world to our community so they can be their fullest self.

Happy Pride, capital Ottawa. Let’s welcome each other to this great city. Bye for now.

I want to thank the member for that question. But most importantly, I want to thank the member for her leadership and standing up for the people of Ukraine against Putin’s illegal invasion. Thank you for everything you’re doing.

Mr. Speaker, the member is right. We are facing the largest labour shortage in a generation here in Ontario. To achieve our ambitious plan to build, we need all hands on deck. That is why our government is making it easier for newcomers to start working in their trade or profession faster. We’re eliminating Canadian work experience requirements and removing duplicative language tests. This makes it easier for engineers, auto mechanics, plumbers and others to move to Ontario, fill in-demand jobs and earn more for their families.

By working for workers, our government is making Ontario the destination of choice for more skilled workers.

We continue to call on Ottawa to speed up timelines and let Ontario choose those with the skills that all of our communities need. Tackling Ontario’s labour shortage is essential to keeping costs down for families and keeping businesses open and expanding in our province. Action in this file is long overdue and it’s never been more important than now.

We need these workers to fill in-demand jobs and build stronger communities for all of us. If the federal government answers our calls, this will further unleash Ontario’s potential so we can start building together.

It’s a great pleasure that I have 70 pages of petitions here, given to me by Marlene Haley, who is one of the co-owners of the Merry Dairy ice cream store back in Ottawa Centre. I’m sure you might have been there once or twice, Speaker, when you’ve been in Ottawa. It reads:

“I Support Small Ice Cream Shops in Ontario.

“Whereas small ice cream shops offer customers a delicious treat, dairy producers valuable clients, and offer staff jobs;

“Whereas the Milk Act prevents small ice cream shops from local wholesaling, even if the source of their dairy ingredients comes from a certified dairy plant. In fact, the Milk Act currently restricts the wholesale of any products made with dairy ingredients, not just ice cream;

“Whereas small ice cream shops that wholesale without their own certified dairy plants are subject to thousands of dollars in fines...;

“Whereas consumers have the right to choose from a variety of safe dairy products...;

“We, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to allow small ice cream shops access to local markets for wholesaling, provided all ingredients are fully traceable, and all dairy ingredients come from certified dairy plants in Ontario.”

I wholeheartedly thank Marlene for her work here. I will be signing this petition and sending it to the Clerks’ table with page Elya.