Speaker, this afternoon, students at Lockerby Composite School in my riding of Sudbury will be coming together to kick off the annual kids helping kids cancer drive in memory of Laura Cotesta. Laura started this campaign in 1995. She was a Lockerby Viking. She was battling cancer, and at that time, the care she needed wasn’t available in Sudbury, so Laura had to travel to Toronto for treatment. She lived that gap in our health care system, and she wanted to change it. Her obstacles inspired Laura to create a fund with the intention of improving overall pediatric care in Sudbury.

Laura is no longer with us, but for the past 28 years, generations of Lockerby students have continued her annual cancer drive, in Laura’s name.

The thing about the kids helping kids cancer drive is that it’s not just about fundraising; it’s about promoting collaboration, compassion and citizenship within our community, and it’s about choosing to make a difference and inspiring others along the way, just like Laura’s legacy has inspired Lockerby Vikings for nearly 30 years.

The kids helping kids cancer drive in memory of Laura Cotesta makes me incredibly proud, not just as Sudbury’s MPP, but as a Lockerby grad.

Sudbury is a community that cares.

I want to thank all the students and staff at Lockerby for their continued dedication to fulfilling Laura’s dream, honouring her legacy and continuing to raise awareness about the importance of having pediatric care available in the north, close to friends, close to family and close to home.

Go Vikings.

Unfortunately, Sudbury has one of the highest opioid overdose death rates in the province. Speaker, 112 people died last year in Sudbury-Manitoulin—that is nine deaths a month, which is three times the provincial average.

The Spot, Réseau Sudbury’s supervised consumption site, saves lives. They’ve had almost 1,000 visits and reversed all 15 overdoses that happened on-site. Despite the life-saving work, the workers at the Spot received layoff notices, and the Spot will be forced to close by the end of the year. That’s because they haven’t received a single dime of provincial funding from the Conservative government. People in my city are dying. This is a provincial responsibility. The city of Sudbury has already contributed almost $1 million to keeping the Spot open. They can’t afford to do it anymore. And they should never have had to pay the Premier’s bills in the first place.

Réseau has been waiting since August 2021 to hear about provincial funding—that’s more than two years. Opioid overdose deaths aren’t waiting for the Conservative government to decide to get into the fight.

My question: How many more people in the north have to die before the Conservative government gets off the sidelines and provides this life-saving funding?

Interjections.