Good morning, Speaker. This morning I would like to recognize a member of my riding. Last week, the city of Hamilton held its 28th annual Senior of the Year Awards and Flamborough–Glanbrook resident Margaret Robertson was the nominee.

The Senior of the Year Award program celebrates seniors aged 65 and older who contribute their time and their talents in service to enrich the social, cultural or civic life of those in our community.

Margaret’s commitment to the Flamborough area has been evident for years. She established and maintained Pause Awhile Tea Room for 32 years, a place enjoyed by so many in our community. She was chair of the Waterdown BIA, where she led the growth of the Victorian Festival. Margaret is also a founding member of the Rotary Club of Flamborough AM, an organization that provides so much service around our area.

Along with these various roles, Margaret has also volunteered her time to work with Flamborough Connects and the Food with Grace Waterdown Food Bank. She has truly been influential and much loved in our community.

My congratulations go out to all of the nominees, and a special thank you to Margaret for all that you have done and continue to do.

The Ontario government is providing over $4.9 million to help create 27 supportive housing units at The Refuge in Oshawa that will support youth experiencing homelessness. Located at 357 Simcoe Street South in Oshawa, the two-storey converted school building will include studio apartments as well as four accessible units.

I believe that affordable, accessible and suitable housing is essential for healthy communities within the region of Durham. It underpins the quality of life for people in Durham at every stage of their lives. I look forward to continued collaboration with the members of Durham regional council as together we ensure that local communities within the region continue to be safe, healthy and caring, as well as sustainable for future generations.

John Henry, the regional chair of Durham region and chief executive officer, had this to say about the new funding for The Refuge: “On behalf of the region ... I would like to extend a sincere thank you to the province ... for this investment. It signifies our shared vision of creating safe, welcoming and caring communities for all.”

I have a message this morning for Prime Minister Trudeau about ongoing horrors in Gaza and in Israel. I believe the Prime Minister must join those around the world demanding the release of all hostages and demanding a ceasefire now. Without question, those responsible for the unspeakable atrocities committed against 1,400 Israelis on October 7 must face justice. But justice is not achieved by levelling entire Palestinian neighbourhoods, bombing border crossings, health care facilities and critical infrastructure, killing entire extended families, including heart-rending numbers of children.

Over the weekend, 19 families in Ottawa were grieving loved ones lost in Gaza. One woman, Hala Alshaer, was grieving 77 relatives, from ages one to 61. This is madness, Speaker—pure madness.

Half the population of Gaza are children. They never voted for Hamas, and they weren’t even born when Hamas was elected in 2006.

Prime Minister Trudeau, do those children deserve to die? Will you speak up for them? That’s what thousands of people were saying in my city yesterday, in the streets of Ottawa. Will you call for a ceasefire, for the release of all the hostages, for the siege of Gaza to finally end and for the immediate start of negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis so they can live in peace? They deserve to. Please speak up, sir.

I’d like to welcome some guests from Italy this morning: Dr. Stefano Giorgilli; his wife, Ornella Giorgilli; and a journalist from Italy, as well, who’s here with them, Iolanda Russo, from ExtraTV. Welcome to the Legislature of the province of Ontario.

It’s now been a year and a half since 9,000 ACTRA commercial actors have been unlawfully locked out of work by the ICA, the Institute of Canadian Agencies. As I’ve raised in this House, the ICA wants to cut wages up to 60% and eliminate benefits and retirement plans. They are not bargaining in good faith and are using scab replacement labour.

The Ford Conservatives talk a lot about the affordability crisis. What about locked-out actors whose livelihoods have been taken away from them? How do you expect them to survive?

The Ford government refuses to ban scab replacement labour, which is getting in the way of a fair bargaining process. Not only that; the Conservatives are giving business through government-paid advertising to the very agencies that are treating commercial actors so poorly. The government says they are working for workers, but their actions show otherwise.

There’s more: TVO CMG workers have been on strike for fair wage increases for nine weeks. After a decade of their real wages falling due to the rising cost of living and inflation, workers simply cannot afford to see their real wages fall anymore, yet they’re being asked to accept another three years of below-inflation wage increases. TVO is a public broadcaster, so the government itself is the employer here. They have the direct ability to intervene, and yet they don’t.

And here’s the thing no one understands: The workers are asking for binding arbitration, a neutral third party to resolve this, and even that the government refuses. Binding arbitration has been offered to other groups. Why not TVO CMG?

I am very pleased to rise in the House today to talk about Doug Hunt, a pillar of the Brantford–Brant community and new Guinness Book of World Records holder.

Known to many in Brantford–Brant as Doug the Great, Doug managed to take 14 continuous forward steps atop stilts measuring 55 feet and weighing 125 pounds apiece. This achievement marks Doug’s third stilt-walking Guin-ness record.

Doug the Great broke the record on Saturday to mark the 10th anniversary of the new and upgraded Wayne Gretzky Sports Centre. His walk was one of the main events of the anniversary ceremony, and he had a huge crowd cheering him on.

In addition to making history once again in Brantford, Doug’s stilt-walking team used the walk to raise money for Participation Support Services, an incredible organization that supports adults with physical disabilities and complex needs to live as independently as possible.

Despite challenges from dangerous winds, Doug stuck by his motto of never giving up and always taking that next step. Doug the Great is a shining example of perseverance and tenacity and a true role model for Brantford–Brant to try to emulate.

All of Brantford–Brant is proud of you, Doug, although I’m not sure you needed 55-foot-tall stilts to be taller than me.

October has been a very exciting month in my riding of Carleton, particularly in the communities of Riverside South and Findlay Creek. The Ottawa Catholic School Board broke ground on not one but two new Catholic elementary schools that hope to have their doors open by September 2024.

Even before I was first elected in 2018, it was made very clear to me on the campaign trail how badly the communities in my riding needed schools to keep up with the rapid growth. It was by far the number one issue in my riding of Carleton, and since the 2018 election, we have received more than $211 million in funding for the building or expansion of nine schools in Carleton alone. These new schools in Findlay Creek and Riverside South will each provide 507 student spaces and 39 daycare spaces.

But a new school is more than a building with capacity and state-of-the-art technology; it will be a place where children will learn and feel comfortable, make lifelong friends with their peers, forming relationships with dedicated staff and teachers and creating a foundation of childhood memories that will stay with them forever.

A groundbreaking for a new school is exciting, but it will be even more exciting to visit two new schools full of children as their local MPP in September 2024.

The Royal Agricultural Winter Fair is a time when farmers, growers, producers and homesteaders from all over Canada descend on Toronto to celebrate the best in farming, agriculture and local food.

Each year, an artist is commissioned to create the official poster for the fair, and I’m proud to rise today to congratulate Oxford artist Aggie Armstrong on being chosen to create this year’s poster. It is truly an honour and a privilege for Aggie, who moved to Oxford county when she was 18, from Manila, Philippines. It’s no surprise why she was chosen. With her experience in both Manila and rural Norwich township, along with her distinctive artistic style, she is a perfect fit for the 101st fair poster. It’s entitled the Magical Voyage to Celebration.

In her words, she wanted to show how growers and producers “take their vocation with pride” and how “the fruits of their labour need to be elevated and celebrated by everyone.” She hopes that “people see the beauty of agriculture and husbandry” and that farmers [should] be proud of all the work they do.”

I believe this is the spirit of agriculture in Ontario, and I encourage everyone to take a look at Aggie’s poster and previous work.

The 101st agricultural winter fair will take place from November 3 to 12 at Exhibition Place.

I once again would like to congratulate Aggie Armstrong for her beautiful work of art and making Oxford proud.

That concludes our members’ statements for this morning.

Introduction of visitors?

In fact, the department is seized with a number of freedom-of-information requests. We’re compiling those and will be prepared to provide them as soon as the department has completed its work.

We also said that decisions on the greenbelt were not ones that were supported by the people of the province of Ontario and that is why the Premier took the step that he did in September to announce that we would be reverting back to the previous policy and that all lands taken out of the greenbelt would be restored.

I have a bill in front of this House, Mr. Speaker, that will soon come again before this House, which transitions those lands back into the greenbelt, which adds thousands of additional acres to the greenbelt, but goes a little step further—in fact, a big step further, Mr. Speaker—by codifying the boundaries of the greenbelt in legislation.

A question to the Premier: Environmental advocacy groups have joined our efforts to uncover information about the backroom deals that have been directing the government’s policies. Environmental Defence and Ecojustice filed a freedom-of-information request late last year to “find out what kind of influence developers had on the Ontario cabinet and Premier in its greenbelt decision.”

This government unlawfully ignored this request, so the Information and Privacy Commissioner ordered the government to comply with the law. But the government ignored this order again. Now, Environmental Defence and Ecojustice are suing to enforce this order.

Why is the government breaking the law to avoid disclosing these requested records?

But this Premier is ignoring freedom-of-information law and the Information and Privacy Commissioner’s orders. He is wasting more public money fighting in court to keep this information a secret. What is the Premier trying to hide here?

Again, Speaker, will the Premier release all records on the greenbelt grab, or do we have to wait until they come out in the RCMP investigation?

For weeks now, we’ve been asking questions of this government on what exactly happened over the three days in September when this government did a 180 on their greenbelt policy, from a rough policy framework on the greenbelt to specific properties that they identified for removal. The Premier told the Integrity Commissioner he did not recall the meeting.

I want to give the Premier one more opportunity to take some responsibility here: Did the Premier have a meeting to discuss the greenbelt on September 15, 2022?

Day 1: a dinner with developers where greenbelt packages were exchanged with the minister’s chief of staff.

Day 2: an alleged meeting with the Premier, his chief of staff, Mr. Amato and Minister Clark, following which Mr. Amato said the Premier and his chief of staff were “very serious” about greenbelt swaps.

Day 3: Mr. Amato informs the ministry that they will be going forward with site-specific removals and identifies three properties, accounting for 91% of the land this government attempted to remove from the greenbelt. Two of them were provided at the dinner just days earlier.

Speaker, back to the Premier: Did the Premier attend the meeting on the greenbelt on September 15, 2022?

Government House leader.

The supplementary question.

I would like to introduce Peter and Beverley Maranger, great community leaders from my riding of Perth–Wellington. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

I want to welcome a very good friend of mine and many other MPPs, Ish Van Der Rassel. He serves on many boards and commissions in North Bay.

Good morning, Speaker, and thank you for the opportunity. I’d like to welcome visitors to our House: the executive director from Pride Toronto, Kojo Modeste, as well as the co-chairs of Pride Toronto, leZlie lee kam and Grant Gonzales. And to the entire board and the set of volunteers and staff, it’s wonderful to have you here.

I just noticed and I wanted to welcome my very good friend Clare Michaels to the Legislature this morning.

It’s my great pleasure this morning to rise to introduce to the House a great Olympian from Canada. He competed at three Olympics, he was a member of the IOC, he was the president of the World Sailing Federation, and he’s a member of the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame. He’s also known as the “Pope of Sailing,” Paul Henderson.

Good morning, Speaker. I would like to welcome my mother who is joining us this morning, Josephine Andrew. I’m really glad that she’s here and that she’s still with us.

I’d also like to take an opportunity to welcome leZlie lee kam, one of our wonderful St. Paul’s constituents and community members who is beloved, and also everyone from Pride Toronto. Thank you for being a second home away from home for so many folks.

I’d like to welcome my good friend Ted Leider. Among other great work that he does, he also co-founded the Shining Through Centre for children with autism. Thank you very much for being here and for the great work you do, and welcome.