On Saturday morning I went to the Westin Harbour Castle hotel in Toronto, signed in, went up the elevator and up some stairs to the very top of the building, about 400 feet up, and stepped off the edge. I was, luckily, attached to some fairly strong harnesses at the time, but that doesn’t really make it any less unnerving, because the one thing your body doesn’t want you to do when you’re on the edge of a building is jump off of it, which I did.

I did this to raise awareness of a fundraising campaign for ProAction Cops and Kids, which is an incredible charity that I became aware of in my work as an MPP. ProAction Cops and Kids has five chapters: Toronto, Durham region, Hamilton, Halton and Peel. Essentially, what it does is it allows kids who are under-resourced to connect with police officers who donate their time to run sports programs, baking programs, sailing etc., and ProAction covers all the costs of equipment and facilities. I became involved because I am so incredibly passionate about the idea of community policing and prevention-based policing, which is about building strong relationships between the community and police, particularly children.

A huge thank you to ProAction team members Jean Milligan, Michelle Marchetti and Nicole Benoit—I know you all worked incredibly hard—and to all of the officers and kids who participated in going over the edge with me on Saturday morning.

La Maison Verte est un producteur essentiel pour le reboisement dans le Nord. Elle fournit des millions de semis à nos forêts chaque année.

Malheureusement, elle est gravement menacée par la hausse marquée des prix de production. La Maison Verte fait face à des problèmes de revenus à cause, entre autres, des dépenses liées aux projets pendant la pandémie et à l’augmentation des coûts opérationnels. Les difficultés sont à leur sommet avec la domination de grands fournisseurs comme PRT en Colombie-Britannique, rendant presque impossible pour les petits fournisseurs de faire compétition à ces multinationales.

Monsieur le Président, il est profondément préoccupant que les petites entreprises comme la Maison Verte se fassent avaler par des multinationales d’autres provinces sans protection adéquate de la part de notre gouvernement. Les petits producteurs ne peuvent tout simplement pas survivre.

Depuis l’ouverture de la Maison Verte, le nombre de petits producteurs similaires est passé de 39 à seulement huit dans la province, une diminution alarmante qui nécessite notre attention immédiatement. L’absence des règlements pour protéger les petits fournisseurs est un problème. Par exemple, la Maison Verte fournit de cinq à sept millions de semis à la forêt de Hearst, tandis que les entreprises comme GreenFirst ne fournissent que 800 000 à un prix compétitif.

Monsieur le Président, en réponse à ces défis, nous devons envisager des règlements pour assurer un marché plus équitable. Il est crucial que nous soutenions les petits producteurs comme la Maison Verte pour assurer leur survie et la santé continue de nos forêts et des entreprises d’ici.

J’appelle tous mes collègues à se joindre à moi pour relever ces défis et soutenir nos fournisseurs locaux avec l’urgence qu’ils méritent.

Good morning, Mr. Speaker. I am so very proud to rise this morning to recognize our government’s recent investment in Hamilton. The Ontario government is investing up to $2.5 million to support the construction of Kemp Care Network’s new 10-bed children’s hospice, which will help families connect to comfortable and dignified end-of-life care, close to home, in my city of Hamilton.

Keaton’s House-Paul Paletta Children’s Hospice will offer families comprehensive palliative care for children and youth living with progressive life-limiting illnesses. Mr. Speaker, the hospice is expected to open in 2026 and will include a number of features and services, including 10 bedrooms for children where family members can stay with their child, and space for day wellness programs and therapies such as massage, movement, recreation and music.

Through the 2024 budget, our government is adding up to 84 new adult beds and 12 pediatric beds, bringing the total to over 740 planned beds. Once these beds open, the Ontario government will invest up to $2,268,000 in annual operational funding for Keaton’s House-Paul Paletta Children’s Hospice to support the delivery of nursing, personal support and other end-of-life care services.

I am so proud of our government for taking action to connect Ontario families with the care they need close to home. I am also proud of organizations in my community, such as Kemp Care Network and McMaster Children’s Hospital for making this expansion of Keaton’s House-Paul Paletta Children’s Hospice possible.

You will know that the 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion will be marked on June 6. All Canadians should remember that 14,000 Canadian soldiers landed at Juno Beach in France on June 6, 1944, as part of a massive Allied invasion. The invasion led to the liberation of German-occupied France and was pivotal in ending the Second World War.

Victory in the Normandy campaign, however, came at a terrible cost. Canadians suffered the most casualties of any division, more than 5,000 Canadian troops dying in the invasion and the Battle of Normandy that followed. We all owe these brave men and women an immeasurable debt of gratitude.

As the years pass, sadly, the number of veterans who fought in the campaign declines. They are from a resilient generation who endured many hardships and experienced the unimaginable horrors of war.

We recently were able to celebrate Hamiltonian Jack Frederick Finan, a 104-year-old Canadian veteran who served with the Royal Canadian Air Force. Many dignitaries were on hand, including the Governor General, when the French ambassador awarded Jack France’s highest military honour, the French Legion of Honour.

I’d like to remark that hundreds of Canadian aircraft were in the air on D-Day, including the legendary Lancaster bomber, and that Mr. Finan is Canada’s oldest living pilot of the Lancaster bomber.

There are many celebrations across Canada to help commemorate the 80th anniversary of the pivotal D-Day invasion. In Hamilton, you can visit the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum that has one of the last flying Lancaster bombers.

I encourage all of us—let’s take a moment to pause and pay tribute. We will remember them.

I would like to welcome the members of Disability Without Poverty to the House today. I’m looking forward to seeing you later at your reception.

I want to wish a warm welcome to my incredible OLIP intern, Evan Cameron, who’s up in the public gallery today.

I have a couple of introductions. First off, I’d like to welcome to Queen’s Park MPP Crawford’s Oakville student youth council: Aiden Pinto, Elliott Dixon, Sakeena Iqbal, Mariam Naboo, Anbo Yuan, Ahmed Anjum and Tianyang Jiang. We’re honoured to have you here today and advocating for financial literacy.

Second, I’d like to welcome the group from Ontario Students Against Impaired Driving to Queen’s Park today. With us today or joining us shortly are students from Niagara Catholic District School Board schools, including Denis Morris, Blessed Trinity, Saint Francis, Saint Paul, Saint Michael, Holy Cross, and Notre Dame College School; from the board office, Camillo Cipriano and Aldo Parrotta; and school staff Patricia Beck, Nikki Royer, Ana Krlin, Carey Bridges, Chaundra Collin, Sue Sparks and Brandy Delaney.

Welcome to Queen’s Park.

Today I want to welcome Rabia Khedr from DEEN Support Services. Thank you for being here.

We have some family here of my EA, Athena, from Whitefish River First Nation: Mariette Sutherland and her daughter Violet Sutherland.

Also, from Grassy Narrows: Chief Rudy Turtle; council members Arnold Pahpasay, Little Bear Copenace, John Clint Kokopenace; Melissa Bunting; Maka Fobister; Zuri Joseph; Zaagaate Bunting; Keewayten Bunting. Meegwetch.

With the agreement of the House, I’d like to continue with the introduction of visitors. I heard a no.

That concludes our introduction of visitors for this morning.

I’m going to recognize the member from Don Valley West on a point of order.

I just want to welcome students from Roland Michener Secondary School from my hometown, South Porcupine, who are visiting today. Welcome.

I seek the unanimous consent of the House for the Speaker to immediately put the question on second and third reading of Bill 195, the Cutting Taxes on Small Businesses Act, without debate, to provide immediate relief to Ontario’s small businesses.

I’ve answered this question a number of times for the Leader of the Opposition. If the leader has additional information—or any information whatsoever—that she would like to provide to the commissioner, I encourage her to do so, Mr. Speaker.

I and members of this government, we’re not investigators, although we do have many former police officers amongst our ranks. That is not our job, Mr. Speaker. So if she wants to raise those issues, I encourage her—as opposed to bringing it up here in the Legislature, she could provide that information to the commissioner and allow the commissioner to do the job that we as a Legislature empower him to do.

I would like to extend a warm welcome to members of Disability Without Poverty here today, including Sabrina Latif, Lisa Presutti, Vienna Psihos, Rabia Khedr, Janet Rodriguez, Hossam Khedr. I am looking forward to meeting with them later today. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

I would like to introduce three of my interns who are here visiting today. From the ministry office, we have Alex Bullen and Alex Jones, and from the constituency office, Kayleigh Aitken.

Welcome to Queen’s Park, guys.

Good morning, everyone. It’s always a pleasure to be here in the chamber with you, and especially today, when I welcome such amazing Bangladeshi community leaders from the east end of Toronto. They’re up there in the gallery: Hydari, Islam, Hosne, Sanjoy, Afia, Sayed and Jalal. They really make the city a more vibrant, livable, beautiful space.

Thank you for coming. Welcome to your House.

It’s a great honour and a pleasure to be able to welcome John Whitehead here from St. Catharines. He is a diabetes advocate from Niagara.

Thank you for all your hard work that you’ve done over the years. Welcome to your House, John.

June is ALS Awareness Month, and I’m delighted to welcome Tammy Moore and Ilayda Ulgenalp from the ALS Society of Canada back to Queen’s Park today. Welcome.

I’d like to welcome a good friend of mine, Janet Rodriguez. Janet is an incredible advocate for people with disabilities.

Welcome to your House.