Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just want to do quick introductions for Dr. Purna Kandel, Kiroj Shrestha, Chanda Adhikari, Kamal Gywali, Bidya Karki, Man Poudel, Rajan Khatri and Dibesh Khanal, who are visiting from the Nepalese community—leaders here with us today at Queen’s Park.

Mr. Tabuns moved first reading of the following bill:

Bill 198, An Act providing a climate change adaptation program for Ontario / Projet de loi 198, Loi prévoyant un programme d’adaptation aux changements climatiques pour l’Ontario.

The ayes are 65; the nays are 32.

I want to thank the government House leader for that response, but I would appreciate this morning, given the pressure I’m under as part of these negotiations at home, that we have a specific answer in this debate to the question; that is, when we put forward a plan for community safety in our city, to help some of our neighbours who are struggling—if anybody has been in our downtown or any downtown, you’ve seen them with mental health and addictions behaviours. We want to make sure that the best help is available to de-escalate people, reach people and get them on a pathway to treatment.

What we’ve seen in Toronto is that an unarmed crisis response unit of professionals is extremely successful. We would like to know, as we prepare to respond to the government, is the government prepared, in our community safety plan, to fund those unarmed professionals, to fund food security professionals? I see Rachael Wilson from the Ottawa Food Bank here in the gallery. There are many people who can be part of the strategy to make sure people get fed, people find affordable housing, and people get the help they need.

So the specific question to my friend opposite: Can the unarmed crisis response unit we’re getting ready be funded by the government in our proposal?

I just appreciate Diane, and I hope you all can do that, too.

I want to say clearly that, under the leadership of Premier Ford, public safety matters all over Ontario, including in Ottawa.

I want to give a special mention to a great chief in the Ottawa Police Service, Chief Eric Stubbs. I speak with Chief Stubbs on a regular basis, and he’s excited with the government’s announcement of helping to work with the city of Ottawa and put in extra resources that will help him combat the crime in the ByWard Market district, where acts of criminality are deterring tourism.

That’s why, throughout Ontario and in Ottawa, our government will work with police services, with municipalities, to make public safety not only a focus but a priority.

Visiting us from Aurora–Oak Ridges–Richmond Hill is Yan Kiu Chan, the proud mother of our outstanding page captain Jeslyn Chui.

Welcome to Queen’s Park, and I’ll see you both after question period.

I just want to invite all the members of the House here to a demonstration. The University of Toronto engineering students have developed a device that goes on side-view mirrors that will detect a bicycle coming, and it will hopefully reduce doorings in the province of Ontario. It will be demonstrated at 12:30 on the front lawn.

Interruption.

Meegwetch. I want to welcome people from Mishkeegogamang First Nation: Mary Ann Panacheese, Lilly Southwind and Charessa Bottle. Welcome. Thank you for coming. Meegwetch.

I have the pleasure to introduce an Oakville resident and a friend of mine, Matt Giffen, who is also the CEO and founder of Bench Brewing Co. in Niagara.

Electric vehicles are the future, but we are not yet EV-ready. New homes should be built with the future in mind. There is a significant cost to installing after-market, at-home charging infrastructure, whereas it would be more cost-effective to have it already roughed in.

This bill amends the Building Code Act, 1992, to add a new section 15. This is required in order to permit the future installation of electric vehicle supply equipment that conforms to section 86 of the electrical safety code. The EV-Ready Homes Act amends the Building Code Act to ensure that new homes built in Ontario will be ready for future electric vehicle at-home charging infrastructure. The EV-Ready Homes Act is an important step to ensure Ontario is ready for its electric future.

I thought that was a drum roll for my brother-in-law, who is here for the first time.

It’s always a pleasure when we have the residents of Mississauga–Malton here. Pushkar Goyal and Kanav Sharma, welcome to Queen’s Park.

And it’s an absolute pleasure to introduce my brother-in-law—my only brother-in-law—who is here for the first time, Ashish Mittal.

This bill uses reports done for this government to provide a series of structures and actions necessary to protect the people, the property of this province. And I want to thank Seniors for Climate Action Now and Dr. Jennifer Penney for the work they did to make it possible.

Ms. French moved first reading of the following bill:

Bill 199, An Act to amend the Building Code Act, 1992 with respect to electric vehicle charging / Projet de loi 199, Loi modifiant la Loi de 1992 sur le code du bâtiment en ce qui concerne la recharge des véhicules électriques.

Point of order, Speaker.

I am proud to support this petition, which is signed by 120 residents in London West, and I will send it to the table with page Anika.

I have a petition entitled, “Justice for Sexual Assault Survivors (Bill 189: Lydia’s Law).”

This was a very important private member’s bill that we were going to be debating in this House yesterday. It addresses the fact that women in this province continue not to see justice in the court system that is underfunded by this government. There were 1,226 cases of sexual assault in 2023 that were thrown out of court because there were not enough staff in our court system to see these cases. These were women that were assaulted that had to live through their trauma not once but twice, and unfortunately, the member from Chatham-Kent–Leamington stood in his place and moved a motion that would send this bill directly to committee and denied women the opportunity to come and be heard in this House.

So, I fully support this petition. I think that it behooves all of us, on both sides, to listen to the people of the province because that is who we are elected to represent. And I share the outrage of women across the province that you’ve silenced the voices of women in this province, and I will add my name along with the thousands of women that share my dismay and outrage with this government.

I am very proud to present this petition entitled “Justice for Sexual Assault Survivors.” It is a petition that urges support for Bill 189, Lydia’s Law, legislation that I am proud to be a co-sponsor of, along with my colleague the member for Waterloo and also the member for Toronto Centre.

The petition notes that the vast majority of sexual assault cases in this province go unreported. There are a very small number that actually go to trial. Of that small number, last year more than 1,300 of those cases that went to court were withdrawn or they were stayed before a trial had been held. This is shameful for the survivors who had the courage to actually report and tried to pursue justice. It is a denial of justice for those survivors, just as they were denied an opportunity to hear a debate about Lydia’s Law in this chamber.

The petition calls for the recommendations that were made in 2019—five years ago—by the Auditor General to ensure the proactive reporting on sexual assault cases that fall through the cracks in this broken justice system and to look for reasons that—

The petition calls on the Legislative Assembly to adopt the provisions of Lydia’s Law, including the Auditor General’s recommendations to ensure some accountability from this government for taking sexual assault cases to trial and also to enhance the independent legal advice program and the Victim Quick Response Program.

I couldn’t agree more with this petition. I affix my signature and send it to the table with page Kai.

I’m going to remind the members of standing order 42(b), which indicates that members may make a brief statement summarizing the contents of the petition but not reading the text of the petition. And I know the member didn’t read the text, but I would ask members to keep their presentations of their petitions brief, consistent with the standing order.

We’re going to continue with petitions. There’s still eight minutes on the clock.

I have a petition here entitled “Raise Social Assistance Rates.”

Currently, recipients of Ontario Works receive $733 and Ontario Disability Support Program receive $1,227. Both of these amounts are well below the poverty line. There have been some modest increases to the Ontario Disability Support Program. However, those receiving the Ontario Works program—their rates have been frozen for decades.

We know that during the pandemic, through the CERB program, it was determined that people needed a minimum of $2,000 per month in order to be able to survive, and so this petition is calling on the government to immediately double social assistance rates for both OW and ODSP.

I fully support this petition, will affix my signature to it and give it to page Anika to take it to the table.

Speaker, just in 2022 alone, 1,326 cases of sexual assault were either withdrawn or stayed before trial, and we already know that 80% of sexual assault cases go unreported. The criminal justice system is very hostile to survivors, and it is very, very difficult to get justice. So in 2019, the Auditor General put forward recommendations in order to reform the system, and Bill 189 aims to do just that. The bill adopts recommendations 1 and 3 from the Auditor General’s report, which would ensure that survivors get the supports that are needed and help them be able to go through the system and get justice at the end of the day.

I fully support this petition, will affix my signature to it and give it to page Diya to take to the table.

Point of order.

We’re going to silence women again, are we?

I have a very important petition, Speaker, and it’s titled “Justice for Sexual Assault Survivors.” This petition was part of a tool under a private member’s bill, Bill 189, Lydia’s Law.

The reason why this petition is very important is because it’s connected to survivors’ voices. Unfortunately, this government decided not to allow a debate on a very important private member’s bill which gave access to sexual assault victims to have their voices heard here in this Legislature through members who have been elected to represent their ridings.

Speaker, there were 1,326 cases actually thrown out in 2022 or withdrawn or stayed in our justice system, which is an injustice, quite frankly. And 80% of sexual assaults are not reported—

So, again, the reason this petition is very important is because it is asking this Legislature to honour the recommendations of the Auditor General’s 2019 report 1 and 3, which allowed better access, more access to survivors of sexual assault to access the independent legal advice because of the way they’re being treated in the courts. And, quite frankly, the way women are being treated here in this Legislature isn’t the right thing to do when we’re talking about the rights of people and sexual assault victims to be heard in the justice system, to get legal justice and put their offenders through the system to make sure they are convicted correctly.

I support this petition, and I would like to sign it and give it to page Harry for being so patient here, listening to me today with this petition. Thank you, page Harry.