I want to thank the member for the question.

Let me be clear: There have been no changes to the funding for our community safety order programs. We continue to support women who are at risk of reoffending.

The John Howard Society is delivering those services in Hamilton, Niagara and the Brantford region.

Our ministry continues to work closely with community service providers across the province in the delivery of community service support and programs.

Mr. Speaker, I’ll be clear again: We support the women who are at risk of reoffending. This is a priority.

The services will be conducted in this region by the John Howard Society.

I said it in my first reply: There have been no changes to the funding for our community safety order programs.

The Elizabeth Fry Society was not the successful applicant to deliver the community services there; it was the John Howard Society.

And I want to say it again: We will continue to support women who are at risk of reoffending.

The member opposite stated—and I just want to remind you that we’re all facing uncertain economic times here and that Ontario is already growing because for the past two years we’ve all been working so hard. You hear about all the investors coming in, which is why we continue building Ontario, making it stronger. However, we have not left the vulnerable aside, especially seniors. Do you agree and support us when we do special support for seniors with GAINS and 100,000 more seniors will receive more support with this budget that we have proposed? Will you support that?

I’m very proud of the track record of the NDP in fighting for presumptive coverage to those kinds of cancers for firefighters. I know that the former leader of the official opposition, Andrea Horwath, had brought in a private member’s bill—I believe it was her first private member’s bill, shortly after she was elected to this place—to make that presumptive coverage available to firefighters. A former member for Parkdale–High Park, Cheri DiNovo, also brought in private member’s legislation to ensure that there was WSIB coverage for PTSD for first responders.

So, yes, of course, we would support those measures. We have supported them always in the past. We have pushed the government to bring in those kinds of changes.

I’d like to rephrase my question to the member opposite. I would be interested to know whether or not she would support regulation changes that are going to be contained within this bill that will help firefighters—and I think the provision is backdated till 1960, if I’m not mistaken—whether she would support that, whether she would support the Canadian Cancer Society and whether she would support the Ontario chiefs of police in calling for that. Hopefully, maybe this time we’ll get an answer.

Thank you to member from Thunder Bay–Superior North for her comments. There are a lot of good things in this bill. Some of the things that I thought the member opposite would be supporting include the fact that we’re having a provision in here to make sure we have sanitary washrooms on construction sites to promote worker dignity, as well as make sure we have women-only washrooms and increase the standards for bathroom hygiene on construction sites for all workers, and also that we have personal protective equipment which is designed for women and fits them properly. I would just ask the member opposite if you would support those parts of what we’re offering here, because it’s going to help get more women into the trades.

I would like to review a quote from Jeffery Lang, president and CEO of the WSIB, regarding the announcement of expanding cancer coverage for firefighters: “When anybody is facing a work-related illness, we are here to help. Our team gets to work as quickly as possible to help people and this change will help us get started faster for firefighters and fire investigators with thyroid and pancreatic cancers.”

My question to the member is, will you vote with us on this bill and vote to support our firefighters?