Thank you very much.

The next question.

That concludes our question period for this morning.

This House stands in recess until 3 p.m.

The House recessed from 1213 to 1500.

Report adopted.

Report adopted.

MPP Hazell moved first reading of the following bill:

Bill 184, An Act to amend the Metrolinx Act, 2006, the Public Transportation and Highway Improvement Act and the Shortline Railways Act, 1995 with respect to transportation / Projet de loi 184, Loi visant à modifier la Loi de 2006 sur Metrolinx, la Loi sur l’aménagement des voies publiques et des transports en commun et la Loi de 1995 sur les chemins de fer d’intérêt local en ce qui concerne les transports.

First reading agreed to.

Your committee begs to report the following bill, as amended:

Bill 66, An Act to proclaim Heart Valve Disease Awareness Day and Heart Valve Disease Awareness Week / Projet de loi 66, Loi proclamant la Journée de sensibilisation à la cardiopathie valvulaire et la Semaine de sensibilisation à la cardiopathie valvulaire.

Bill 137, An Act to proclaim Planning for Your Silver Years Awareness Week / Projet de loi 137, Loi proclamant la Semaine de sensibilisation à la planification de l’âge d’or.

This bill amends several acts.

The Metrolinx Act, 2006, is amended to add a new object for Metrolinx requiring it to promote and facilitate the integration of routes, fares and schedules of municipal bike-share systems. Section 29 is amended to require Metrolinx or a subsidiary corporation to ensure that any assets sold or disposed for the purpose of building residential units include at least 20% affordable residential units.

The public transportation and highway maintenance improvement act is amended to specify mandatory maintenance standards for Highways 11, 17 and 69.

The Shortline Railways Act, 1995, is amended to re-enact section 10 of the act, which was repealed by the Getting Ontario Moving Act (Transportation Statute Law Amendment), 2019. The re-enacted section establishes requirements that apply to shortline railway companies that wish to discontinue the operation of a railway line.

Responses?

I rise today to recognize and pay tribute to the brave Canadians who fought valiantly and sacrificed so much during the Battle of Vimy Ridge, a defining moment in our nation’s history.

Speaker, 7,004 Canadians were wounded in the Battle of Vimy Ridge on another continent over a century ago; 3,598 Canadians died. When we take a moment and think of the weight of the sacrifice to Canada, a country, at that time, with just a fraction of our current population, it is staggering. It was a sacrifice that was felt in every corner of our country, as its weighty cost was felt across all communities, within all households.

The price paid by these young Canadians for our freedom was indeed heavy. These were young individuals—some lying about their age. They were not from professional military backgrounds. However, they were our brothers, our fathers, our sons. They were regular people from our streets and from our neighbourhoods. They were called upon to act with duty, to act with courage and to safeguard the homes so many left behind.

The Battle of Vimy Ridge, which occurred between April 9 and April 12, 1917, fought on the already war-scarred landscape of northern France, was a moment that now has become a symbol of Canadian courage in the face of conflict. It is why on April 9 each year, we take a moment to reflect, to take a moment to thank and, most of all, to remember—to remember and to feel the pain of so many.

Speaker, only a few years ago, our nation, our province and our municipalities celebrated the centennial of the Battle of Vimy Ridge.

I recall when Niagara spent nearly 10 years and countless hours of work in preparation for celebrating the 100th anniversary of Vimy Ridge—a piece of Canada’s history that was painstakingly restored in Niagara in order to provide a public viewing. At the Lake Street Armoury in St. Catharines, an unveiling of the Vimy Ridge gun, a German artillery gun captured by Canadian soldiers during the battle of Vimy Ridge—the restoration, spearheaded by the Lincoln and Welland Regiment Foundation, involved countless hours steeped in the efforts of our region, showcasing Niagara’s commitment to the honouring of our past. It is a source of pride to honour the citizens, honour the soldiers and the peacekeepers who served. In Niagara, veterans and community members alike stood shoulder to shoulder in our collective recognition for those important events. This is a story from my community about the efforts to recognize and honour those who made the greatest sacrifice at Vimy Ridge.

Each one of us here in this chamber has similar stories. Each community has made similar efforts. Honouring those who have made the great sacrifice is the greatest unifier.

Today, as we reflect on the significance of Vimy Ridge, let us also celebrate the unity and the resilience that have come to define us as Canadians.

Today, Canadian families with a present military tradition or civilian families—together, we all remember that Vimy Ridge defined our nation. Let us remember the lessons of our past, the bold actions and the pivotal moments that define our nation. Their commitment to peace, democracy and justice is the legacy of Vimy—a legacy we continue today as peacekeepers in our Canadian military.

As we honour the memories of those who fought and fell at Vimy Ridge, let us renew our pledge to one another. The imprint that the battle had on Canadian families continues to ripple through all of our communities even today, almost 107 years later.

In closing, as we take a few moments of silence, when you bow your head, try to say, “We will remember them,” but try to feel the fear, the brotherhood and the unity of our heroes, our Canadian military. Let us acknowledge how fortunate we are, as Canadians—for the breadth of the sacrifices of real lives at Vimy Ridge and the high price that was sacrificed. Let us pay gratitude to those who have since paid the ultimate sacrifice, to those who have served our military, and to all who continue to do so today.

As we look forward to the future, let us embrace the legacy of courage and honour, recognizing that Vimy’s legacy is one of peace, solidarity and prosperity.

Lest we forget.

Speaker, it’s both an honour and a privilege to speak on Vimy Ridge Day. The bravery and incredible accomplishment of Canadians at Vimy Ridge has certainly earned international recognition for good reason. But I believe there’s another key feature of the Battle of Vimy Ridge that makes it speak so strongly to those of us here at home: Vimy Ridge lives on in the memories of Canadians still, not just as a commemoration, but as a shining example of courage, perseverance and the Canadian spirit of teamwork and innovation.

In the horrors of World War I, the Canadian Corps knew that continuing to sacrifice thousands upon thousands of lives was not acceptable. There had to be another way, and indeed they created one. The four divisions of the Canadian Corps employed innovative tactics and techniques. Through detailed reconnaissance, map study and rehearsals, Canadian troops familiarized themselves with the terrain. Commanders gave the everyday soldiers new orders, encouraging them to take the initiative, and then gave them the support and information needed to do exactly that.

The meticulous planning and preparation undertaken by Canadian officers and soldiers together, prior to the battle, was crucial to its success. The Canadian Corps at Vimy Ridge pushed the Central Powers back almost five kilometres, the greatest single Allied advance on the Western Front to that date. Still, Vimy cost almost 3,600 Canadian lives and untold injuries, but that was far fewer than the 150,000 Allied lives that had already been lost trying to capture Vimy.

That spirit of innovation, finding a new way in a dark time, lives on in Canadians today. It’s a blessing that we live with the freedom to do so—a freedom provided by the sacrifices of Canadians of the past. Their memory inspires us to be a strong, innovative, caring nation, standing together in the face of all that challenges us. We must always give thanks, and we must never forget the gifts that we have been given through their sacrifice.

Applause.

I’m quite happy to present this petition. Marc Carroll, a disability rights activist from Sudbury, has collected over 200 names. Marc lives with a disability, and he feels that our society will need more supportive housing in order to be able to accommodate people who have disabilities, so he took it upon himself to write a petition and to go around and ask people to sign it. He’s asking us to make sure that the supportive housing sector in Ontario gets the funds they need so that we have enough supportive housing to meet the 2.6 million Ontarians who live with disabilities, who would benefit. I agree with him.

I will ask Duncan to bring those petitions to the Clerk.

I have a petition here that comes from Ostomy Canada Society. Basically, the Assistive Devices Program in Ontario should cover 75% of the cost of assistive devices. For people who wear an ostomy—believe me, nobody wears an ostomy if they don’t have to—the amount that they get has not been changed in many, many years, which means that right now, they get about $850 a year max, when most of them spend over $2,000 for their ostomy supplies. They would like us, as legislators, to make sure that the Assistive Devices Program is true to itself so that they get reimbursed 75% of the true cost of having to live with an ostomy and buying the ostomy supplies.

I think this is reasonable. I fully support their ask and will ask Duncan to bring that to the Clerks.

We know that the vaping industry really targets the kids. They target the kids with the flavours that they use. They target the kids with the way that they sell their products.

Mr. Taschereau is very worried. He knows that there are a number of public health agencies, such as public health Canada and Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada, that are encouraging schools and others to do everything we can to keep vaping out of the hands of children. I think this is wise.

I would ask the House to consider passing my bill, the Vaping is not for Kids Act.

I support what the petition is trying to do. I will ask Nate to bring it to the Clerk.

Je crois que c’est une bonne idée. Je vais signer la pétition, et je demande à Nate de l’amener à la table des greffiers.

A lot of women have signed this petition. Because of intimate partner violence that is rampant in some areas of French River, they need the OPP stations to stay open.

I fully agree with them.

I will sign the petition and ask my good page Nate to bring it to the Clerk.

J’aimerais remercier Kieran Murphy, un élève au Collège catholique Franco-Ouest, et aussi tous les élèves et tous les enseignants au Collège catholique Franco-Ouest.

I’d like to thank Kieran Murphy, a student at Collège catholique Franco-Ouest, who collected all these signatures from students and teachers on a petition which addresses the Student Nutrition Program and the First Nations Student Nutrition Program—

Point of order.

Our understanding is that the standing orders—we oppose this specific change, by the way. It is our understanding that the standing order was meant to summarize the petition, not to change the subject matter of the petition and to make sure it was within a certain time. There was no time limit specified—but that it not be repetitive. I would submit that this is our first day at this. I think we have followed the intent of the standing order change.

The Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks.

Are there any other contributions to the point of order that has been raised?

I would point out that, indeed, the standing orders were changed. Standing order 42(b) indicates that, “A member may present a petition in the House during the afternoon routine ‘petitions.’ The member may make a brief statement summarizing the contents of the petition and indicating the number of signatures attached thereto,” but shall not read the text of the petition.

I would say that of the members who have presented petitions this afternoon, not one of them has read the text of the petition, as far as I can tell, based on what I’ve heard.

The issue is, is the submission brief or not?

I would ask the members to keep their introduction of their petitions or their presentation as brief as possible.

Petitions? The member for Ottawa West–Nepean.

These are a continuation of the petitions that the member from Waterloo brought in on behalf of the Roth family. The Roth family, following the death of their daughter, Kaitlyn—there were some flaws in mental health. And so, the intent of these petitions—because we’re not allowed to read them anymore, I’ll summarize them. Because of the number of people who die by suicide and because of the mental health concerns when discharging patients, and the intake policies, what they’re looking for here—and there are many petitions here, Speaker; if you remember, yesterday the member had a huge stack of them. These are just the handful that I had left over. What they’re petitioning for is that the Associate Minister of Mental Health and Addictions earmark funding for training to ensure that something like this doesn’t happen again in the future.

I’ll provide it to page Lyra for the table.

The essence of the summary of it, basically, would be that labour disputes are less long, less hostile and dangerous to communities when you have anti-scab legislation. Obviously, they’re not asking for no worker to be able to go in—because in workplaces like mine, you would need to do care and control of places. But they want to be able to have the withdrawal of labour, which is the only power workers have, as a right so that they can force negotiations to move forward more efficiently.

I obviously support this petition. I’ll affix my signature and provide it to page Simon, who snuck up on me like a ninja.

That concludes our petitions for this afternoon.

I’ve been advocating for this petition for a while now, and it’s because if an adult adopted person’s next of kin is deceased, the current legislation prevents them from accessing their birth records and identifying information—specifically, for Indigenous people who need to have that information. It’s very important to them.

This petition was created by John Vo. He lives in Etobicoke. Many others have signed. They are asking the Legislative Assembly that they can have access to post-adoption birth information when the next of kin or extended next of kin is deceased, so that they can find out their heritage of their family lineage.

I’d like to submit this petition to the Legislative Assembly and have Lyra deliver it to the table.

Questions?

I apologize; I missed the section of the routine proceedings for introduction of visitors.

I’d love to give a warm welcome to my mother, Mary Jo Dowie, and her friend Barb Newton, who are up in the members’ gallery right now.

Resuming the debate adjourned on April 9, 2024, on the motion for second reading of the following bill:

Bill 180, An Act to implement Budget measures and to enact and amend various statutes / Projet de loi 180, Loi visant à mettre en oeuvre les mesures budgétaires et à édicter et à modifier diverses lois.

I would like to thank Carole et René Menard de Hanmer dans mon comté pour ces pétitions.

Ils veulent vraiment que l’on répare les subventions aux résidents du Nord pour les frais de transport à des fins médicales. Il y a beaucoup de services de santé qui ne sont pas disponible dans le nord de l’Ontario. Donc, les gens du Nord doivent voyager vers Toronto, vers Ottawa, vers London pour avoir ces services-là.

Le remboursement n’a pas été mis à jour depuis très longtemps, ce qui veut dire que pour plusieurs personnes, ils n’ont pas suffisamment les moyens de se rendre à Toronto, London ou Ottawa pour recevoir les soins dont ils ont besoin.

Ils voudraient que les frais de remboursement soient ajustés à la hausse pour permettre à tout le monde d’avoir accès à des soins spécialisés.

Je pense que c’est quelque chose d’important qui devrait être fait. Je n’ai aucun problème à appuyer cette pétition, et je vais demander à Emirson de l’amener à la table des greffiers.

There are hundreds and hundreds of people who would like to see a doubling of the social assistance rates. There are many parts of my riding where we have a higher concentration of people on social assistance. It is extremely difficult for them to make ends meet at $713, $730—I forgot the exact number—to pay rent, to pay for food, to pay for transportation. They would like a living wage so that what they receive in social assistance actually allows them to live. I agree. I support this petition and ask my good page Emirson to bring it to the Clerk.

Thank you very much, Speaker. When the debate ended this morning, I was speaking about the unprecedented situation we have in our education system right now because of the government’s underfunding of education. There’s really no part of our education system where that’s more true than special education.

We are really seeing our kids with disabilities and learning exceptionalities being put in an impossible position within our school system because of the funding shortfall. Teachers and administrators are telling me stories about principals having to pull kids with special needs around the school with them all day in a wagon because there’s nobody else in the school who’s available to take care of them.

Earlier this year, we had a situation where a student eloped from his school, a student with autism, and no one realized he was gone for over 30 minutes, even though the student is supposed to have one-on-one support at all times, because the government’s underfunding of special education means that schools are being put in a position of making impossible choices.

The Ontario Autism Coalition has warned that with this funding shortfall, it’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when some child is going to be seriously hurt because of the lack of supports, and yet this government put only $18 million towards special education in this budget. That’s equivalent to the deficit of only two school boards in the province: the Greater Essex school board, which has a deficit of $10 million, and the Halton Catholic District School Board, which has a deficit of $9 million—so it’s actually less than that deficit. What about the other 70? Where’s their funding to support students with special needs?

The problem with not supporting these students is that then they fall through the cracks. There are students who are sitting in a classroom but who are not getting any support with learning at all. One mom told me her son is looking out the window all day. Others have told me their child is being given a worksheet and some crayons instead of having the opportunity to learn.

We’re also seeing this erupt in frustration and violence from children who are not getting the supports they need, along with students who are not getting the mental health supports they need. I just want to read this message from an education worker from Hamilton, who said:

“My EA team is burnt out, we’re attacked on a regular basis and we’re short handed almost every day because there are not enough supplies to pick up open jobs. We are all juggling way too many high needs students, we are struggling to be effective in our roles because all we’re doing is putting out fires.” The Minister of Education “has done nothing to make schools safer and stability is a thing of the past at this point, things keep getting worse ever since the pandemic.

“The students are not okay and we don’t have the manpower or the properly skilled professionals to meet their needs. We need mental health professionals, more social workers and more self contained classes for the students who are not able to function safely in regular class. We have had five staff sent to hospital this year because of the violence of just one of our spec ed students.”

A teacher from Waterloo sent me this message: “I’m in a K-6 school. This week so far we’ve had a non verbal student elope and run off campus, three different students trash three different classrooms, one staff member get assaulted by a student, and two class evacuations. And it’s only Wednesday.”

And yet what did the government put in this budget to address violence in our schools? There’s $30 million for surveillance cameras and vape detectors, but nothing for additional mental health supports, educational assistants, admin staff, professional development for teachers and education workers on de-escalation and addressing violence. Apparently, our schools are just supposed to watch on video as students, teachers and education workers get attacked, without being able to do anything about it.

Another area that the budget fails to address is the teacher shortage. We are seeing teachers burnt out and struggling. They feel like no one cares what happens inside of our schools. They’ve dealt with the indignity and the insults of Bill 124 and the incredible disrespect of this government throughout the past four years as they’ve been doing incredible work throughout the pandemic, and so teachers are leaving the system, unable to take the conditions any more, able to earn more money in a less difficult situation outside of the sector or in a different province. And so we have unqualified teachers in our classrooms. We have classes that are congregating in the library for the day because there’s no teacher for them. High school students are telling me there’s an absenteeism problem because why bother going to school if you’re not going to be taught anything for the day, and yet the government failed to even mention this in the budget, let alone even address it.

I could go on for another 20 minutes, Speaker, on just everything the government failed to do on education in this budget, but unfortunately, I’m out of time, so I hope I get lots of questions about education.