I’d like to welcome my staff at the constit office: Amanda McFarlane, Jason Leung as well as Nicole Wang. Thank you, and welcome to Queen’s Park.

I just want to take a moment to welcome a couple of members of our team from the Milton office: We’ve got Kiren Dhah and Megan Saliba. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

Mr. Speaker, as you’ve probably noticed by now, there are over 100 members of the PC caucus staff present today. On behalf of the entire PC caucus, welcome to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.

Good morning. It’s good to see everyone here. I’d just like to welcome everyone. As a First Nations person, as the First Peoples of this country, I’d like to welcome you to our traditional territories. Meegwetch.

To my wonderful and hard-working constituency staff, Michael Zwiep and Marietta Linde, who are joining us today: Thank you for being here.

I’d like to welcome the students and teaching staff of Sprucecourt Public School, located in historic Cabbagetown in Toronto Centre. It also happens to be my very first public school when I arrived in Canada and the place where I learned to speak English.

I’d like to introduce members of my constituency office that are here today: Elizabeth Pike, Mandeep Dhaliwal, Harjit Sandila, Sukhjot Pannu and Tanjot Gill.

I’d like to welcome to the Legislature my excellent staff: Thomas DeGroot and Chad Crew. Welcome, and enjoy the day.

I’m very pleased to welcome today Food and Beverage Ontario. They’re hosting a reception immediately following question period in rooms 228 and 230.

I’d also like to recognize and welcome the Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Growers’ Association. The chair, Charles Stevens, is here from Newcastle. He’s a proud graduate of the Advanced Agricultural Leadership Program. He’s joined by his board members Jan VanderHout and his son, Daniel; Shawn Brenn from Waterdown; Mike Chromczak from Tillsonburg—Jan is from Waterdown as well; as well as their executive director, Alison Robertson, and Gordon Stock.

I would like to welcome Colin D’Mello to the media gallery this morning.

I do. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am seeking unanimous consent that, notwithstanding standing order 40(e), five minutes be allotted to the independent members as a group to respond to the ministerial statement by the Minister of Children, Community and Social Services regarding the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women, 2022; and that five minutes be allotted to the independent members as a group to respond to the ministerial statement by the Minister of Francophone Affairs regarding the modernization of the French Language Services Act.

Thank you, Speaker. If you seek it, you will find that there is unanimous consent for me to say a few words as we remember the victims of the Montreal massacre today.

Speaker, before I put my question, I want to welcome our next leader, Marit Stiles. Marit, we’re all confident that you’ll do great things as the next leader of the Ontario NDP. Congratulations.

Applause.

I’m going to quote the chief nursing executive at CHEO, who said, “It has been all hands on deck at CHEO this viral season as we have responded to unprecedented volumes due to RSV, the flu and COVID.”

It is not lost on our government that, in the last month alone, CHEO has essentially doubled their pediatric ICU unit. It is an incredible amount of work that they’ve been able to do very quickly. We have now permanently made the investment to ensure that those pediatric beds will stay at CHEO, because we know that that hospital, in particular, because of its large catchment area, has many, many community hospitals that they are serving.

They are doing that with a minimum amount of help from the Red Cross. They are partnering with the Red Cross to return the staff who have been redeployed, and working in those pediatric ICU units to make sure that they can go back to doing their important work.

I’d like to welcome, from my constituency office, a proud member of Tuscarora Nation, Samuel Anderson, and also Julie Barnard, my constituency assistants.

I’d also like to introduce my staff. It’s their first time at Queen’s Park: Camila Budylowski and Nabeel Ranmall. Welcome to Queen’s Park. Enjoy your day.

I’d like to welcome my staff: Sam McDonell, Josee Seguin and John Cameron. Sam is the nephew of Jim McDonell. He’s working in my office. We’re lucky to have you here.

My question is to the Premier. Today, we honour the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women, exactly 33 years to the day since 14 women were murdered at the hands of violent misogyny in Montreal. This was not an isolated event. Since 1990, over 980—Speaker, likely far more—have been lost to femicide in Ontario alone.

This year, the Renfrew county inquest recommendations were published, following a years-long investigation into the violent, hate-fuelled murder of three women in 2015: Anastasia Kuzyk, Nathalie Warmerdam and Carol Culleton. From the government, Speaker, it’s been a lot of crickets.

My question is to the Premier. Will the Premier explain to these women’s families why the government hasn’t yet acted on any of these recommendations?

Again to the minister: What should have been part of this government’s plan all along was a plan to address the root cause of our health care crisis—that’s staffing issues. This government can take tangible action right now to retain health care workers. Will the government commit to not appealing Bill 124?

Yesterday it was a family in eastern Ontario who struggled to find a hospital that could accept them for labour and delivery. First they tried their local hospital, but the birthing centre was closed due to staffing shortages. The next hospital they tried didn’t have room, so finally they returned to their local hospital. That situation should never have happened. The mom, Kendra, said this afterward: “I’m just afraid ... that health care will fail me again, fail [my son].”

What does the minister have to say to parents like Kendra who are scared for the future of our health care system?