Il y a des membres de l’Association des infirmières et infirmiers de l’Ontario : M. Paul-André Gauthier et Neil Stephen.

I also want to say a great thank you to their president, Dr. Claudette Holloway, and Dot Klein as well as Kayla Guse, who came from Sudbury to be here with us today. Welcome to the RNAO.

It is my great pleasure to welcome our page captain of the day Winifred Lin’s parents from Scarborough–Agincourt to this great place: mother Duan Sharon Rong He and father Zhou Jordy Di Lin. Welcome.

It gives me great pleasure to welcome immediate past president of RNAO and a constituent of mine, Morgan Hoffarth. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

I beg to inform the House that, pursuant to standing order 9(h), the Clerk has received written notice from the government House leader indicating that a temporary change in the weekly meeting schedule of the House is required, and therefore, the House shall commence at 9 a.m. on Monday, March 4, 2024, for the proceeding of orders of the day.

Good morning, colleagues. It is my pleasure to welcome to the Legislature this morning Sofia Avdoulos from my riding of York South–Weston. Have a great day at Queen’s Park.

Last month, there was a transformative announcement that was delivered in Windsor and will phase out thousands of truly dreaded trips up the 401 to London—no offence to my colleagues across the aisle.

Thanks to the Minister of Health and the Minister of Children, Community and Social Services, Essex, Kent and Lambton will receive $4.5 million in annual funding to increase our local pediatric health services. More children of our region will get the care that they need for the future, when they need it, and right at home in our own community.

This funding supports a new after-hours pediatric emergency diversion clinic at Met campus, together with increased support for children’s speech-language pathology, physiotherapy and occupational therapy rehabilitation services at the John McGivney Children’s Centre in Sandwich and the Connections early years centre in Walkerville. The Children’s Treatment Centre of Chatham-Kent and Pathways Health Centre for Children in Sarnia are also receiving new support for their services.

In contrast to the past, this government goes beyond the talk and continues to choose to invest. The regional acute care hospital at County Road 42, the repatriation of nurses working in Detroit, support for in vitro fertilization for the first time, new nursing schools based at the University of Windsor, new MRIs, the cardiac catheterization lab and nuclear accelerator at the Windsor Regional Hospital have been taken off the shelf and delivered, now that the years of inaction are over.

I, too, would like to welcome our former MP for Beaches–East York, the marvellous Matthew Kellway. We worked well together on environmental issues. I’m glad you’re here.

I would also like to welcome the nurses from RNAO and a special welcome to our Hamilton nurse, Ashley Fry-O’Rourke. Welcome to your House.

The member for Ottawa South beat me to the punch of the full Ottawa list of RNAO folks so I’m just going to emphasize one guest, and that is Laura Crich. Laura, thank you so much for leading the RNAO in our city. I would be remiss if I didn’t also acknowledge and welcome Hoda and Joanna, who have won a nurse practitioner clinic in Ottawa thanks to your hard work, Laura.

Thanks to all the nurses in this building. We need a lot more of them.

I’m very pleased to welcome Loris Aro from Don Valley West, a nurse at Bayshore HealthCare who is very committed to treating those with opioid addiction. Thank you, Loris, for being here.

Also, thanks to those I had breakfast with this morning: Jessica, Reza and Chi Chi, who is a nursing student and a refugee from Nigeria. It’s a very moving story, so thank you. I encourage her in her studies.

I’m also pleased to welcome Rhea Katyal and Sebastian Cirlan from my riding who are participating in Model Parliament; Yanick Proulx from Sudbury; Nolan Welsh, who is here today as part of Model Parliament but also working in my constituency office and doing a great job; and lastly, Huda Muddei, who is a new staff member on my team. It’s her first day in the Legislature, so thank you, Huda.

I would like to introduce members from the RNAO Ottawa region, who specifically asked me to use first names for the sake of brevity, so here we go: Una, Laura, Genevieve, Monique, Jenna, Laura, Ellen, Jennifer and Lisa, and their honorary member Mahoganie. Welcome to your House.

Of course, as an RNAO member myself, I’m so pleased to welcome so many of my friends and colleagues to the House today: Doris Grinspun, Claudette Holloway, Lhamo Dolkar, Poonam Sharma, Paula Manuel. Thank you for your advocacy. Thank you for speaking out for nursing and speaking out for health.

I’m so pleased to welcome today in the gallery the RNAO and their members. It is wonderful to have them here for their advocacy day. I want to particularly welcome Lhamo Dolkar, president-elect of RNAO, Doris Grinspun, executive director, Rachel Elliott, Michelle Heyer, Sonia Chin, Debra Lefebvre, Katie Hurst, Daria Juüdi-Hope, Shelley Evans, John Edwards, Paul-André Gauthier, Lisa Herlehy, Mackenzie Thiessen, Rob Samulack, Ashley Robinson, Ingrid Daley and also joining them, of course, former member of Parliament for Beaches–East York Matthew Kellway. Welcome to your House.

Tomorrow, March 1, marks Professional Engineers Day. I would like to take this opportunity to recognize and congratulate all professional engineers of Ontario and thank them for their efforts. You are building Ontario for all of us.

I’d like to thank the member for Ottawa South for introducing me to the House—Lisa was on your list. I’m here.

Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to introduce a great friend to many people in the chamber, including yourself and of course the table, Jeffrey Kroeker, who was a former staff member of ours in many different Parliaments. He’s sitting up in the gallery. And I’d like to welcome him back to the chamber and thank him for all his hard work while he worked here.

I am very pleased to welcome my constituent from London West Janet Hunt, who is the president of the RNAO Middlesex-London chapter and has been educating me and advocating with me since I was first elected in 2013.

I also want to welcome Mackenzie Thiessen and Ryan Chan from RNAO Middlesex-London and—for the great conversation we had this morning at breakfast.

It is my very great honour to welcome Steven Street, the executive director of WoodWorks Ontario. Welcome to your House.

I want to thank the members of CUPE Ontario, OPSEU, OECTA, the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association as well as members of the OFL who were all here this morning at the press conference to support gender-affirming health care. Thank you very much.

I want to welcome, from my riding, Ashrita Samantula, who is participating in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario’s Model Parliament. I want to welcome her to Queen’s Park.

And I do want to give a shout-out to RNAO. As a board director at Credit Valley Hospital, I spent six years on the front lines, working with them, seeing the great work they do. I had that great privilege, and I want to thank all of you for being here today.

Speaker, I want to welcome my friend Phiona Durrant, from the Aurora Black Community Association; her son Jayden; and board member Bobbie Marshall. Welcome to Queen’s Park. Thank you so much for everything you do in our community, especially the last 28 days. Thank you so much, Phiona.