I’m pleased to welcome to Queen’s Park our page captain today, Bronwyn Renwick, and her parents, Grace and Carl Renwick. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

It is my pleasure to welcome over 100 members of the Ontario Medical Association. We have their president, Dr. Andrew Park, and soon-to-be CEO Kim Moran. I had the pleasure to meet with Dr. Kapur, Dr. Koka, Dr. Karlinsky, Dr. Berman, Dr. Abdulla, Dr. Krishna and many more. We also have Craig Duhamel and Dara Laxer from the OMA. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

I hope everybody joins them at lunchtime for their reception.

I also want to join members to welcome Dr. Park and the whole team from the OMA.

I would also like to introduce Owen Rao, a bright, enthusiastic student from St. Charles Garnier Catholic Elementary School. He is from my riding in Richmond Hill and is serving as a page now. He is observing his MPP in action, which promises to be a remarkable experience and a significant highlight of his education journey. Welcome, Owen.

He’s also a member of the OMA, but I just want to welcome my friend Dr. Koka. We first met at United Way. There are very few things happening in Sudbury that are good that he’s not part of. So welcome to Queen’s Park, Dr. Koka.

I am pleased to be able to welcome Gayle and Gary Dudeck, who are in the member’s gallery here today. They’ve been very strong voices for new home construction and fairness, so welcome to Queen’s Park.

I’d like to introduce Kaushik Patel, Smitaben Patel and Riya Patel, business owners from Huron–Bruce, actually, but great community advocates in my riding as well. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

I see Kim Moran over in the box. It’s wonderful to welcome her back to Queen’s Park in her new capacity. As you know, Kim was the former children’s mental health—that’s where I’ve had the opportunity to meet her. It’s lovely to see you.

Speaker, I would also like to welcome the hundreds of autism advocates who are going to be on the front lawn today, talking to this government—

Mr. Speaker, I came to Queen’s Park this morning to find out that the NDP was hosting a press conference at 9 a.m. Why? To tell the public that government was contemplating building a parking lot facility because we are redeveloping Ontario Place to be a world-class tourist destination.

What do Wonderland, the zoo, Exhibition Place all have in common? Yes, they’re tourist destinations, but they also have parking spaces for the convenience of those that attend those wonderful locations.

Mr. Speaker, Ontario Place is not enjoyed by the public anymore. We will make sure that there will be lots of activities for families to enjoy all year round, 365 days a year.

Everybody will remember two weeks ago, on September 25, the day we were back at Queen’s Park, there were 10,000 people on the front lawn of Queen’s Park asking this government to not further privatize our health care system. They came from all over the place. Not one member of the Conservative Party went and saw their constituents out there. There were people from North Bay, people from Timmins, people from Sault Ste. Marie, people from all over Ontario. They were asking us not to further privatize our health care system.

This bill continues to open the door to privatization. The small, not-for-profit agencies that the member mentioned have not seen a base budget increase in 12 years. They need more money in order to meet the needs of the people of Ontario.