Further debate?

Speaker, I am honoured to rise today in this historic building, in this extraordinary chamber—this chamber that serves the great people of Ontario—to deliver my inaugural speech. There are many people to thank and many to congratulate today. My sincere congratulations to you, Speaker, on your re-election to this distinct role.

To my colleagues, newly elected and returning members on both sides of the aisle: Congratulations to you all. Putting your name forward on a ballot, going through the election process and receiving the support of your family, friends and volunteers is truly a unique experience, one I believe is a test of our dedication and commitment to our communities. Bravo to all of you for your strength, both mentally and physically. Well done.

I recall being a young girl and always having the desire to help others. As I reflect on those early years, I realize the impact my father had on me. He was an Anglican priest, and I recall listening to his sermons every Sunday and watching him care for his parishioners and his most vulnerable community members: the sick, the suffering, the hungry, the homeless. I was always in awe of the profound, positive impact he had on the lives of others.

I believe that at my core, I knew I wanted to make a positive impact on others, albeit from a different perspective. For me, it was how I could help others achieve their goals, to be the best possible person they could be while making our community stronger.

Speaker, the community I am proud and honoured to represent in this chamber is the riding of Newmarket–Aurora. I have called this community my home for over 13 years. It is where my husband and I have raised our son. It is where our son learned how to ice skate and swim at the local community centre, the Aurora Family Leisure Complex. This is where our son met his best friend when he was three years old and our families became fast friends.

My riding has a population of more than 115,000 and is located in central York region. It has an urban feel with an amazing small-town charm which propelled my husband and I to settle in this great community. On a historical note, during the 1820s, the village was transformed into an extensive market centre for the settled region, thus the name, “new market.” Newmarket’s historic downtown Main Street was named the people’s choice best street in Canada in 2016. It is identified as one of the Golden Horseshoe’s 25 urban growth centres in Ontario’s A Place to Grow growth plan. Main Street is a great attraction for shopping, dining, for great parades and festivals, like the Santa Claus parade, York Pride parade and the Canada Day Kanata festival.

There are many features that I love in my community. I will raise two of my favourite features. Firstly, the historical significance of my riding, from the notable architecture and heritage sites, like the Newmarket’s Old Town Hall that serves as a community gathering location today, to the Canadian National Railway building and former station that serves as the office of the Newmarket Chamber of Commerce today, to the Elman. W. Campbell Museum, formerly the North York Registry Office, and to the Hillary House built in 1862 and is a national historic site known as one of Canada’s best remaining examples of Gothic revival architecture. Please come and visit the Hillary House as you will have the opportunity to see original instruments and equipment used in medical practice from the era of leeches and bloodletting to the development of antibiotics by the Canadian physicians who inhabited this home over a century ago.

The second great feature is the love of sports. Aurora is the home of its very own sports hall of fame. They have 42 honoured members, including four new inductees in 2022. Some of our local famers include Mike Murphy, who played on the Canadian hockey team, the New York Rangers and the LA Kings; to Dan Thompson, a butterfly specialist who has won many swim medals, including gold in the 1978 Commonwealth Games, silver in the 1979 Pan Am Games and was the team captain of the 1980 Canadian Olympic team.

Yes, I am very proud of my community, from our local history, culture and diversity with a visible minority population of more than 28%. I am also so happy to share that we have the very first Black community centre in all of York region. This is the result of the successes of NACCA, Newmarket African Caribbean Canadian Association; and to an association that celebrates sport in all its forms, including age, gender and ability, thank you, Sport Aurora for recognizing and promoting sport in our community.

Our local hospital, Southlake Regional Health Centre, has advanced regional programs in cancer care and cardiac care.

And to our local businesses: Restaurants like Wicked Eats in Aurora, who opened in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Owner Robert Stewart was that brave entrepreneur who had a vision. He included in his business plan a catering food truck service to compliment his restaurant services.

Cachet Supper Club: Great restaurant in the heart of Newmarket, at the bottom of Main Street. Owner Jenn McLachlan pivoted during COVID to provide online cooking classes and developed an application to support the “deliver eh” business model.

Our great retailers and our manufacturing businesses: One of many great examples is Wolfpack Packaging Inc., who has been in Newmarket for 20 years producing corrugated box manufacturing while inspiring eco-consciousness by working with moulded fibre to make their products fully recyclable and biodegradable. Happy to say, this business is growing as they recently acquired another business positioning itself as a top leader in Canada’s packaging industry.

This is just a very small sampling of the innovation, creativity, entrepreneurship and investments in a sustainable future that are happening in my riding—businesses providing jobs and helping our local economy grow.

Yes, this community has given me and my family so much, especially a sense of belonging. I thank my great community for their support and for entrusting me with this phenomenal honour to be their voice at the provincial table. I would like to thank Ivan, my husband, and Robert, our son, for their support over these years, especially during the election campaign. They are, and will always be, my rock.

There are many people from my campaign who stayed here today all this time—thank you very much—who helped me achieve this honour: Ryan Puviraj, Blake Koehler, Sandra Manherz, Paul de Roos, Marisa Patricelli, Angelica Cruz, Daniel Goutovets, Bruce Yu, Sharada Sunil, Daniel Zhang, Mary Rice, Novelette Hart, Matthew Hart, Richard Wells, Katie Gilligan, Mike Vasiliou, Joanne Beatty, Darryl Wolk, Adam Mobbs, Karen Hall, Rachel Song, Aamir Khan, Toni Akalu and Ava and Mahta Gharai. And, to my amazing girlfriend support: Teresa Kruze, Marcia Mowatt and Kim Madore, as well as many others.

I must also give a shout-out to my sister Kerry Lubrick for her support. We do not see eye to eye when it comes to politics; however, she set party politics aside and helped my team get out the vote. That is true sisterly love.

Speaker, today I would like to provide a distinctive thanks and special appreciation to my predecessor, Christine Elliott. I know this house is very familiar with Christine. She served the people of this province for 14 years and earned many accolades. For the past four years, she represented our riding of Newmarket–Aurora. I met Christine in 2018 and got to know her during the 2018 election. She is truly kind, intelligent and the most humane person I have ever met. She always thinks of others and worked hard to advocate for persons with special abilities. Over the past four years, I had the honour of working alongside MPP Christine Elliott. There were many great opportunities to connect and support local residents and non-profits.

I think about the priorities our government made in February 2021 to combat human trafficking, protect victims and potential victims, and provide supports for survivors. As part of this strategy, the province invested more than $3.8 million over five years to create two new community-based programs in Newmarket–Aurora. These programs are being delivered by BridgeNorth and Cedar Centre and will provide specialized supports to help children and youth heal and rebuild their lives.

In June 2021, I supported MPP Elliott as she announced our government’s plan to build a modern, connected mental health and addiction system that serves Ontarians. We expanded mental health services for children and youth in Newmarket–Aurora by providing more than $668,000 to five support centres in our community to add counselling and therapy staff to support high-needs therapy, prevention work and crisis counselling. In addition, Southlake Regional Health Centre received an investment of $6.5 million to support the expansion of the adult in-patient mental health unit, which added 12 new beds that will better address the demand for mental health supports and services for patients and families in my community.

Other great occasions included the Ontario Trillium Foundation Resilient Communities Fund grant announcements, some of which went to helping our local York Curling Club, our local arts organization Shadowpath, and the John Howard Society of York Region, as well as the Newmarket Food Pantry, who used the funds to install a community kitchen. All these organizations were supported with this special funding, as they provide important services to our community members.

Just this past April, our government announced how we are working for workers locally, by investing a total of $3.9 million in two Newmarket organizations offering innovative projects to train and upskill workers in our community. The Newmarket Chamber of Commerce developed a program to support new and existing entrepreneurs to ensure acceleration and growth. Fair Chance Learning developed an online learning program platform enabling participants to earn in-demand, industry-recognized micro-credentials. These types of resilient programs support individuals to be more employable, with future-ready skills that respond to labour market demands.

I commit to building on the strong foundation Christine left us, and I will work with community members, not-for-profits and local businesses to make sure that Newmarket–Aurora is the best place to live, work and raise a family.

Monsieur le Président, il y a quelques semaines, j’ai eu une conversation avec une résidente locale au sujet du bilinguisme. Depuis que j’étais jeune, j’ai bien aimé la langue française. Dans ma 11^e année, à l’école secondaire, j’ai visité Montréal avec ma classe de géographie. C’était une visite géniale. À ce moment-là, j’ai décidé que je voulais devenir bilingue pour bien communiquer avec les francophones. J’avais complété quelques programmes d’immersion au Québec, j’ai étudié le français à l’école et puis j’ai passé un an à Paris afin de bien améliorer mes compétences en français. Franchement, c’était la meilleure année de ma vie—bien entendu, avant ma vie avec mon mari et notre fils.

Dans ma circonscription électorale de Newmarket–Aurora, nous avons un taux de bilinguisme qui est de plus de 8 %. Cela veut dire qu’il y a plus de 10 000 personnes qui sont bilingues dans ma communauté. Un très bon exemple, c’est un organisme incorporé sans but lucratif qui s’appelle Communauté du Trille blanc. Ils ont commencé en 2019 avec le but d’offrir un environnement et une qualité de vie en langue française aux personnes âgées de la grande région de York.

Je voudrais remercier notre ministre des Affaires francophones pour tout le support donné à notre communauté francophone.

En décembre 2021, la Loi sur les services en français modernisée reçoit la sanction royale. Nous avons voulu améliorer l’accès aux services de qualité en français pour la communauté francophone de l’Ontario, qui est en pleine croissance.

En mars 2021, j’étais tellement heureuse que notre gouvernement ait investi plus de 2 millions de dollars pour soutenir le tourisme francophone, aidant ainsi la communauté franco-ontarienne à continuer de contribuer au secteur touristique diversifié de la province. Il y a plus de 620 000 francophones vivant en Ontario. Il s’agit de la plus importante population de francophones au Canada à l’extérieur du Québec. L’Ontario continue d’être une destination de choix pour les voyageurs francophones nationaux et internationaux. Selon les données les plus récentes de 2019, l’Ontario a enregistré 232 000 visites touristiques en provenance de la France et 4,5 millions de visites touristiques en provenance du Québec.

Alors, voilà la raison pour laquelle je crois que le bilinguisme est important et fort en Ontario, même dans ma circonscription de Newmarket–Aurora.

Speaker, I believe that my education and life experiences, coupled with my 25-plus-year private sector career and the past four years working alongside my predecessor, have afforded me and led me to this great opportunity to be standing here in this awesome chamber today.

To the residents of Newmarket–Aurora, I think back to that young girl who wanted to help others achieve their goals. I am honoured and privileged to realize my dream of serving you and ensuring our community grows stronger.

I would like to close my inaugural speech today by quoting a great role model in my life, Ruth Gallagher, my mother, who was always full of life and radiated positive energy, “Count your many blessings. Count them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done.” Speaker, I have more than 115,000 blessings that I can count who are dwelling in my great community of Newmarket–Aurora. Thank you. Merci.

Thank you for that question. Yes, for over 25 years, I was in an industry which we referred to as secure payments. That afforded me the opportunity to work with our large financial institutions, here in Canada, Quebec and internationally. I would say the skills—and this is a great question because when I think about those years, I always wanted to be in politics and help others.

What I was doing over the past 25 years was, I was helping others, making sure they could get their credit cards and we could have new payments on our mobile phones and things like that. It was more technology, but I have to say that I was really pleased that with the relationship skills and contract negotiations, everything you could think of which has led me here today, because it’s our government that we are focused on now, looking at how we can recover our economy, and my background has rendered me the ability to help with that process.

First, I want to start off by congratulating everyone back in the chamber but especially the new members who are here with their inaugural speeches. The member for Newmarket–Aurora, I did listen intently to your inaugural speech. You had mentioned that you had 25 years of experience in the private sector. As a question, what was that career and how does that experience inform you in the work that you’ll be doing in the Legislature?

Questions and responses?

Thank you very much, Speaker. First, I want to congratulate the new member from Newmarket–Aurora. Not only was the member from Barrie–Springwater–Oro-Medonte born there, but on July 1 of last year, our youngest granddaughter was born at Southlake. Ruby Alice Yakabuski was born there, as our son and his fiancée live in Newmarket as well.

You and I really hadn’t met at all until you became a candidate. I remember asking the former MPP and our deputy leader and health minister, Christine Elliott, “Are you happy with the candidate?” A big smile came across her face. And now, when you talk about the long-term relationship and the friendship that you’ve had, I understand it perfectly. I’m just glad to have you here, and if you would like to expand a little bit more on your relationship with Christine Elliott, I’d love to hear that as well.

I just want to welcome the member for Newmarket–Aurora into this House, this very special place. I was in Newmarket–Aurora just a couple of months ago for a Pride parade, a Pride march. I was invited by the Newmarket–Aurora NDP. It was lovely, a great event. It’s also a really great, beautiful community. It was fun to see that.

I wanted to ask the member if she might comment. I know she was the office manager for the former MPP. I wonder if she might give us advice, particularly for some of the newer folks here as well—her number one piece of advice for serving the constituents in the community.

I recognize the member from Barrie–Springwater–Oro-Medonte.

What a lovely speech. I listened intently, and it was wonderful. As somebody who was born at the Newmarket hospital, I would like to say that I really appreciate your representation there. I spent a lot of time in the Newmarket area when Green Lane was a dirt road and went down to one lane there. Those who are from there will remember that; it’s not anymore.

I went to high school in Bradford, but spent some time at Huron Heights hanging out with friends. We won’t speak of what we did in particular; it’s probably not fit for public consumption. But I would like to hear from you some of the wonderful things from your riding that you really appreciate in the Newmarket–Aurora area.

Premièrement, c’était un grand plaisir de vous entendre cet après-midi. Félicitations d’avoir été gagnante ici. Vous m’avez donné le courage d’essayer de parler en français. J’aime la langue, comme vous. C’est quelque chose que tous les députés doivent pratiquer, même si leur niveau n’est pas aussi haut que le vôtre.

Aussi, c’était une grande surprise d’apprendre que votre soeur est Kerry Lubrick, parce que nous avons travaillé un peu ensemble à Hamilton. C’est une famille que je voudrais travailler avec parce que je sais que vous avez le coeur pour les gens et aussi le courage de suivre vos convictions—

Questions and responses?