Good afternoon, everyone. Yes, I definitely had the floor when we last debated Bill 157 this morning.

I want to start with a quick update. Bill 157 is titled the Enhancing Access to Justice Act. New Democrats have worked hard throughout the committee process to encourage the government to see a way forward to actually answer the calls of our community partners as well as our constituents.

We have definitely seen so many cuts across the province, in pretty much every ministry, that hurt our public sector and hurt the people of our province. It has put people in precarious positions. We see a housing crisis that is completely out of control, something none of us have ever seen in our lifetime, as well as our parents or grandparents—have ever seen the state of our communities.

We have an opioid crisis that is compounding those issues. Unfortunately, a lot of those same individuals are the ones who are ending up in our court system—no fault of their own. They are now addicted to opioids or any other street drugs. If you’ve taken the time in your community to visit some of these encampments and talk to some people, you will definitely see very clearly the effects that these drugs are having on their person; it’s very visible. And we know that many of these people who are entering our court system are some of these same folks.

So that leads me—

Interjections.

It encompasses so many issues that we see, right?

Today’s paper—we’re talking about plasma. People can donate plasma and get paid for it in the lowest economic riding in the entire province, in Hamilton Centre. These same folks tried it 10 years ago, and now they’re back at it again, and they’ve literally pinpointed it down to the postal codes of where they want to put this shop to have people sell their plasma—

We’ve seen the way that access to naloxone, a life-saving drug, in our community has changed. We have community partners that are begging the government to please see what they’ve done. At the slip of a pen, they’ve changed the exact way that people can access Narcan in our communities. There was zero consultation. There was zero notice. It was literally done and gone. And now our community is struggling to be able to get these life-saving drugs.

I bring these things up, Speaker, because like I said, these are the same people who are entering our system.

I visited our city hall on the weekend, and there was a protest—homeless site set up. They were protesting the fact of—it’s a city issue with the parking lot and housing. The woman who was actually leading this protest—her son died by an overdose. He was homeless. He died of an overdose. Her sister, her little brother also died by overdose—and he did this so in the jail.

So when we’re talking about access to justice, we need to make sure that there is justice for all individuals in our system. And these are the same people who need to access the legal aid system, which this government has underfunded and cut for years and has put in a precarious position. These are the same people who are sitting in jail cells—or they’re getting let out on bail because the jail cells are full, because our court systems cannot take the load any longer. This is years of underfunding. This is years of lack of capital input to ensure that the buildings are safe from mould, and other things that we have heard for reasons that courtrooms have been shut down. We have heard of staff retention and people not wanting to stay within the court system, which is causing major delays and a complete breakdown of our justice system.

Caught in the middle of that broken justice system are victims—victims who are not seeing their day in court for their perpetrator because time has ran out. When we have time running out on sexual assaults, on break-ins, on some pretty severe crimes in our community, that is putting those same perpetrators back out on the street.

So whether the Premier wants to think that it’s about the judicial system and the judges who make this decision—he’s so wrong. It’s not the judges’ decisions that are crashing our court system; it’s the lack of funding and the people’s ability to be able to keep our court system running.

So we have a major problem. That’s why, as I’m reading through—first of all, a great title: Enhancing Access to Justice Act. And yet, really, where is the enhancement in this bill that people are asking for? They’re asking for funding for our women’s shelters. They’re asking for intimate partner violence to be called femicide. It’s the number one recommendation from the Renfrew inquest—

There were 86 recommendations made there. They were to provide a road map—and this is right from the site—to preventing intimate partner violence from escalating to femicide. The verdict shone a light on the systemic underfunding of front-line supports and glaring gaps in our justice system.

The number one recommendation—they can’t even do it—

When we’re doing bills that have titles like Enhancing Access to Justice Act, the least they could have done was ensure that language was built into this legislation to save women’s lives. We know that if 62 people had died in any form or fashion, it would be the biggest cry ever—but women die, and they’re silent. It’s sad.

I have a motion from December 21, 2023, from the office of the mayor of the city of Hamilton. The member from Flamborough–Glanbrook would have received this—her name is on this; as well as the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport, as he’s from Hamilton East–Stoney Creek. The member from Flamborough–Glanbrook, of course, is part of the city. MPP Sarah Jama; Hamilton West–Ancaster–Dundas, my seatmate Ms. Sandy Shaw—