I would like to thank Sylvie Courchesne from Garson in my riding for these petitions. The petitions are called “911 Everywhere in Ontario.”

As you know, Speaker, when something goes wrong, when somebody is sick, we know to dial 911. We teach our kids—I’m sure you could ask the pages; they all know, if you’re sick, call 911.

Unfortunately, in many parts of my riding and in many parts of the north, 911 doesn’t work. The service is there—there are ambulance services, there are police officers to come and help you—but you have to remember a 1-800 number that nobody knows, and that 1-800 number changed three times just through my riding.

Ontario is the only province that does not have 911 everywhere. Every other province has made arrangements with Bell Canada so that 911 is available throughout. In Ontario, only municipalities have signed those arrangements. As soon as you’re outside of municipal boundaries, 911 doesn’t work, and most people discover that in a time of need.

So what those people are asking for by signing the petition is, do what every other province in Canada has done. Bring 911 everywhere in Ontario, so that when you visit beautiful northern Ontario, where I live—I don’t wish harm upon you—if something happens and your family dials 911 for you, the ambulance will be there to help you.

As you know, Speaker, medicare is a program that defines us as Canadian, as Ontarians, where the care you need is based on your needs, not on your ability to pay. Unfortunately, more and more of our publicly funded care is delivered by private companies. The private companies exist for one reason: to make money for their shareholders. They do not exist to make sure that you get the care you need. We have seen—the report from Kingston, the reports from different parts of Ontario, show that those companies that deliver care—

I fully support them. I will affix my name to it and ask my good page Simon to bring it to the Clerk.

As you know, Speaker, there are a huge number of underage kids who vape. It is so bad that the Minister of Education is actually spending $3 million to put detectors in the bathrooms of our schools to detect kids vaping at school. It would be a whole lot better to prevent those kids from picking up vaping, and this is what the bill that I have tabled is entitled to do and this is what the petition wants to do.

One of the biggest tools we have to make sure that kids don’t get addicted to nicotine through vaping—because once they’re addicted to nicotine, they will keep buying the products. How do we keep them out of the hands of kids? You ban flavours, and then kids are not attracted to vaping as much as they are now.

I fully support this petition. I will affix my name to it and ask my good page Ryder to bring it to the Clerk.