I’m so eager to present this petition. I received it from Sally Palmer. She’s a professor at McMaster University, and she’s very passionate about OW and ODSP. With the cost of living, it’s so much more important, more than ever, for this petition.

What it’s asking for is that they want the rates for Ontario Works, because they have been frozen since 2018, and their small increases in the Ontario Disability Support Program—it has really left recipients struggling well below the poverty line. So they’re advocating for doubling of the ODSP and the OW rates. That’s what they’re asking this government to do.

I have a lot of signatures on this petition, and I want to thank Sally Palmer, the professor at McMaster University, for sending these through and making this a very important issue in this Legislature.

I fully support this petition. I will sign it and give it to page Jasnoor to deliver to the table.

This petition comes from a small business person who lost his business during the pandemic because he paid his workers too much and can’t restart it because he’s working 24/7 to take care of his parents. He’s a family caregiver.

This petition calls on the Ontario government to support 24/7 family caregivers, including through financial compensation, so that those who are caring for their loved ones can have some relief from financial distress and the resulting mental stress.

This afternoon, I’m presenting, yet again, a petition entitled “To Raise Social Assistance Rates.”

We know, as all of the people in Ontario are struggling to afford to put groceries on their table, the people that are living on OW and ODSP are struggling even more. They are living well below the poverty line. Those rates have been frozen in time, and it’s well beyond time that we address the kind of suffering that those people and families that rely on this income are struggling—

This petition to raise social assistance rates has been signed by thousands and thousands of people across Ontario. We have been presenting them here. They’re the hard work of the Hamilton Social Work Action Committee and Dr. Sally Palmer.

We think that these rates that have been frozen in time are unfair. People are struggling, living well below the poverty line, so I agree wholeheartedly that we need to address this injustice. We need to raise the rates and we need to help people that are struggling, including children living on social assistance and ODSP.

Thank you very much. I’m going to give it to page Victoria to take to the table.

I’m pleased to present this petition on behalf of one of the caring parents in my riding who, regrettably, has become a victim of an apparent contradiction in some of the rules in our province.

On the one hand, anyone is entitled to adequate time to unload themselves or passengers from a vehicle. But at the same time, if a vehicle is struck while the door is open by another vehicle, the parked vehicle with the open door is the one that is found to be at fault. This becomes deeply problematic for people who are unloading children from car seats in the back of their vehicle, and, indeed, this caring parent was a victim of that.

So the following petition, supported and signed by over 4,000 people and which has received significant media coverage, calls for an amendment of the legislated fault determination rules in our province to ensure adequate protection for parents in parked vehicles as they buckle and unbuckle their children so that they are not inappropriately found at fault.

I fully support this petition, am pleased to sign it and to hand it to Paige.

I’d like to thank Sally Palmer and the group from McMaster University, and I think it would be fitting, today of all days, on Disability Without Poverty day, to read this petition. It’s a petition asking us to double OW and ODSP rates.

During the COVID pandemic, CERB, basic income was found—the income to survive was $2,000 a month. People are living in legislated poverty, and it’s time we recognize this and double ODSP and OW rates and stop the clawbacks.

I support this petition. I will sign it and hand it to page Grace.

I support the “Stop Bill 166” petition. I will sign it and hand it over to page Tristan.

This is a petition that comes from high school students in my riding of Kingston and the Islands and asks the government of Ontario to provide mandatory standardized training for all employers and employees regarding anti-Semitism and Islamophobia in the workplace, as well as understanding Judaism and Islam.

I would like to thank Louise Laplante from Hanmer in my riding for this petition. It is called “Blood and Plasma Donations Not for Sale.”

Speaker, you will remember, in the 1980s, 30,000 Canadians got infected by HIV and hepatitis through blood products; 8,000 Canadians died. There was a Royal Commission of Inquiry led by Justice Krever, who made recommendations. His number 2 recommendation was to make sure that we never pay for blood and blood product donations.

In Ontario, we passed the Voluntary Blood Donations Act that forbids the privatization of blood product collection and payment. But right now, Grifols has a contract and is opening up pay-for-plasma donations in Ontario, which will not only supposedly help with our supply, but they also sell Canadian plasma, Ontario plasma, back to the States. I think this goes completely against the Voluntary Blood Donations Act of Ontario, and so do the people who have signed the petition asking us to respect our own laws.

I fully agree with this petition, and I ask my good page Sophia to bring it to the Clerk.

Comme vous savez, monsieur le Président, les francophones de l’Ontario ont le droit constitutionnel à une éducation dans la langue française. La demande pour des écoles françaises continue d’augmenter et ça fait qu’on a besoin de près de 1 000 nouveaux enseignants et enseignantes à chaque année. Malheureusement, le système en Ontario n’en éduque que 500 par année.

Il y a une étude qui a été faite et un rapport qui a été rendu au gouvernement pour aider avec ces défis. Donc, ils demandent au gouvernement de financer le rapport du groupe de travail sur la pénurie des enseignants et enseignantes dans le système d’éducation de langue française, et de travailler en partenariat avec eux pour résoudre le problème pour que tous les enfants francophones de la province aient accès à une éducation de langue française de qualité.

J’appuie cette pétition. Je vais la signer, et je demande à Farhan de l’amener à l’amener à la table des greffiers.