The member is quite correct; the Premier and the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Infrastructure did undertake a quite historic agreement with the city of Ottawa. We’re working very closely with the city of Ottawa to make sure that our priorities align. Obviously, there are priorities with respect to infrastructure in that area and public safety. That is something that the Premier made a focus on.

I’m meeting with the mayor next week, and we will further discuss some of the priorities for the city of Ottawa.

Ultimately, we want to make sure that the city of Ottawa continues to grow and prosper, and that it continues to have the best infrastructure that it possibly can.

We have been told that after years of neglect by the previous Liberal government, the investments in hospitals that we’re making, the investments in roads that we’re making and the investments that we’re going to be making with respect to public safety will all help ensure that Ottawa is prosperous going forward. We need the federal government to help out, as well, but—fingers crossed—they’re not always there for us when we need them.

My question is for the Premier.

We’re working on a new downtown community safety plan in Ottawa to respond to a request from this government that we use funds to enhance people’s safety downtown and on our transit system. We now have 120 days to respond to the government. We’re meeting actively with local officials to help us come up with the best plan.

My question, which is a straightforward one, which is part of our preparations, is, is the government prepared to fund, in our community safety plan, an unarmed crisis response unit that could help our neighbours who are suffering with mental health issues and addictions?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would also like to welcome Dr. Purna Kandel from Brampton.

Welcome to Queen’s Park.

On behalf of the member from Barrie–Innisfil, our Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks, I want to welcome the mom of one of our great pages, Harry Patel, who has been working very hard in the last two weeks. Krutika Patel is visiting. Krutika happens to work with Aecon on the Darlington nuclear plant.

Welcome, Mom.

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.

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.

Supplementary.

A number of members have points of order they wish to raise.

Members will please rise.

The House observed a moment’s silence.

Deferred vote on the motion that the question now be put on the motion for third 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.

Call in the members. This is a five-minute bell.

The division bells rang from 1147 to 1152.

On May 13, 2024, Mr. Bethlenfalvy moved third reading of Bill 180, An Act to implement Budget measures and to enact and amend various statutes.

On May 15, 2024, Mr. Fedeli moved that the question be now put.

All those in favour of Mr. Fedeli’s motion, please rise one at a time and be recognized by the Clerk.

Mr. Bethlenfalvy has moved third reading of Bill 180, An Act to implement Budget measures and to enact and amend various statutes.

Is it the pleasure of the House that the motion carry? I heard some noes.

All those in favour of the motion will please say “aye.”

All those opposed will please say “nay.”

In my opinion, the ayes have it.

Call in the members. This is a five-minute bell.

The division bells rang from 1156 to 1157.

All those in favour of the motion will please rise one at a time and be recognized by the Clerk.

Be it resolved that the bill do now pass and be entitled as in the motion.

Third reading agreed to.

It is now time to say a word of thanks to our legislative pages. Our pages are smart, trustworthy and hard-working. They’re indispensable to the effective functioning of the chamber, and we are indeed fortunate to have had them here.

To our pages: You depart having made many new friends, with a greater understanding of parliamentary democracy and memories that will last a lifetime. Each of you now will go home and continue your studies, and no doubt you will contribute to your communities, your province and your country in important ways. We expect great things from all of you. Who knows? Maybe some of you will someday take your seats in this House as members or work here as staff. But no matter where your path leads you, we wish you well.

Please join me in thanking this fine group of legislative pages.

Applause.

The House recessed from 1202 to 1300.

Report deemed adopted.

Mr. Sarkaria moved first reading of the following bill:

Bill 197, An Act to amend the Highway Traffic Act / Projet de loi 197, Loi modifiant le Code de la route.

First reading agreed to.

First reading agreed to.

First reading agreed to.

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.