Heart and Stroke is at Queen’s Park today. Since I was elected, we have worked together many times to call on the government to introduce health promotion and disease prevention initiatives.

I am happy to report that thanks to their support, we have taken many steps forward. Ontario has banned flavoured cigarillos; they were marketed to youth to get them addicted to nicotine. Restaurants now put calorie labelling on their menus to help people make healthier choices.

In 2019, Heart and Stroke joined me in support of a bill to create an automatic external defibrillator registry that 911 operators could use to direct callers in the event of a cardiac arrest. Although it became law three years ago, it is still not implemented, but I am hopeful.

Heart and Stroke is here today because there’s so much more that needs to be done. Ontario needs to be informed, educated, and raise awareness about heart and brain health. We need to accelerate critical research to improve outcomes for people living with heart disease and stroke. And we need to support people in their health journey and recovery.

Heart and Stroke does all of this with their advocacy for public policies, for healthier environments, for improved access to support services and for a strong and equitable health care system. Thank you, Heart and Stroke, for all you do and for all that your volunteers do. Ontario is healthier because of your hard work. Thank you. Merci.

I’d like to wish a sincere welcome to so many from Windsor and Essex county. From the Windsor Professional Firefighters Association, Kris Matton, Jeff Goldthorpe and Shay Currie; from the Windsor-Essex County Association of Realtors, Maggie Chen, Mark Lalovich, Elica Berry and Krista Gionet. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

It is my pleasure to welcome Windsor Professional Firefighters: Kris Matton, Shay Currie and Jeff Goldthorpe. I look forward to meeting with them later in my office. I want to welcome them to Queen’s Park.

It is an honour to welcome the northern representative of the Ontario Association of Interval and Transition Houses, Jennifer Chamberlin, and the executive director of the New Starts for Women in Red Lake. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

It is my privilege to introduce members of the Council of Canadian Innovators who are visiting Queen’s Park today for a number of roundtables. The Council of Canadian Innovators is a member-based organization reshaping how governments across Canada think about innovation policy and supporting homegrown entrepreneurs to drive our growing economy.

I’d like to welcome two great women here today: Yasmine Youssef, executive director of the Nisa Foundation; and Shiba Anjum, also a program director for the Nisa Foundation. Welcome to Queen’s Park.