I’m grateful to the member from Don Valley North for his important question.

Recent attacks against police officers are completely unacceptable. Especially at this time, we remember the sacrifice made by Constables Hong and Northrup and Russell. We can’t thank our police officers enough for their heroic work that they do to keep Ontario safe.

Monsieur le Président, je suis fier de soutenir nos policiers, qui assurent la sécurité de l’Ontario tous les jours.

Our policing partners put their lives on the line every day, and we recognize that police officers deserve our support and respect. We will provide the police with the tools and resources they need to keep us safe. Most importantly, we will have their backs each and every day.

Since our government came into office, we’ve invested over $300 million in grants for policing in the city of Toronto alone. More than $28 million of those monies were allocated through our anti-gun and gang strategy.

Retirer les armes à feu illégales est notre priorité absolue.

We’re optimistic that the federal government will continue to invest in Ontario’s anti-gun and gangs program and to take important action to stop the illegal firearms that are coming into our province at international borders. I urge our federal counterpart, Minister Mendicino, to go to the border, make an announcement and step up the inspections at the border so that Ontario can keep itself safe.

I want to thank the member from Ajax for the question. She knows how hard first responders and police officers and firefighters work, and everyone that keeps Ontario safe.

Mr. Speaker, last night, I attended the Toronto Police College to watch people receive awards for doing heroic acts. They work hard every day, but like everybody else in Ontario, like everybody else on April 1, they’re now paying 3.3 cents more a litre on fuel and on diesel. Let me put this into context: An average police car, an average vehicle in public safety, is now paying over $2,000 more a year just for the increase on April 1.

And do you know what, Mr. Speaker? Bonnie Crombie served on the board of the Peel police service board. This is absolutely true. She should come clean with the people of Ontario and say, “I’m not going to support this tax.”

Interjections.

I listened to the member, and I know she loves her city very much. But I have to say, this is an opportunity where we had the president of the police association here, the PAO. I believe that if a member doesn’t support this bill, they don’t support our police officers, they don’t support our firefighters, they don’t support our animal welfare inspectors and they don’t support the coroner’s office.

The question I want to ask the member, who loves Toronto, is, will she support this bill?

It’s my privilege to rise in the House today in recognition of Ontario Police Week, which is taking place from May 14 to May 20. I want to thank the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police for organizing, and all police associations and police service boards for participating in this week’s awareness and advocacy.

Monsieur le Président, c’est un grand honneur pour moi, en tant que solliciteur général, de prendre la parole à la Chambre aujourd’hui à l’occasion de la Semaine de la police.

Mr. Speaker, this year’s Police Week comes in the shadow of tragedy. Ontario remains a province in mourning. We were all devastated to learn last week that two officers were injured and one was murdered while responding to a call in Bourget, Ontario. A veteran officer with 21 years of service, Sergeant Eric Mueller devoted his life to keeping his community safe so that we may all live, we may all work, we may all pray without fear. He will forever be remembered as a hero in life, not death.

Monsieur le Président, tous ont le droit de se sentir en sécurité chez eux et dans leur collectivité.

Mr. Speaker, along with all colleagues in this House from all sides of this House, I want to offer our deepest condolences to Sergeant Mueller’s family. We also wish a speedy recovery to Constables Marc Lauzon and François Gamache-Asselin and send our thoughts out to the entire Ontario police service community in this time of unassailable grief. We will mourn with them, and we will pray with them.

The Premier and I and my colleague, my parliamentary assistant, the member from Etobicoke–Lakeshore, stand with Ontario’s police community today and every day. For our government, the safety and well-being of our police officers is personal. Those who keep us safe deserve to go to work and come home safely to their loved ones each and every night.

Pour notre gouvernement, c’est personnel. Ces gens méritent de se rendre au travail et de rentrer chez eux en sécurité.

Mr. Speaker, just over a week ago, at the Ontario Police Memorial, the Premier and I, along with the members from Chatham-Kent–Leamington and Kitchener South–Hespeler, honoured police officers who have fallen in the line of duty. As we recall their names, we honour their sacrifice, and we think of their families: Police Constable Andrew Hong, 48, Toronto Police Service; Police Constable Morgan Russell, 54, South Simcoe Police Service; Police Constable Devon Northrup, 33, South Simcoe Police Service; Police Constable Grzegorz “Greg” Pierzchala, 28, Ontario Provincial Police. We also remember Police Constable Vicki Lynn Wilson, who died in 1992—Durham Regional Police Service. They, too, will forever be our heroes in life. We hope and pray that their memories will always be for a blessing.

Mr. Speaker, the legacy of policing in Ontario is strong, and it’s proud, and it’s enduring. We see it every day—the dynamic, the vibrant, and the modern police services that we have all across Ontario, and I have seen a lot for myself. Ontarians know the institution of law enforcement is pivotal to our democracy, and I’m pleased to share that this policing institution remains strong.

As an example, recently, the Ontario Provincial Police headquarters welcomed two outstanding new deputy commissioners: Deputy Commissioner Kari Dart and Deputy Commissioner Marty Kearns. Between them, they have over 60 years of exemplary service to the OPP and the people of Ontario, and I was proud to be there as they received their new commissions just last week.

Our police are leaders. They are also role models. And I might add, they’re an extension of the communities they serve. We see the optimism on the faces of our cadets, who embark on a journey of public safety beginning at the Ontario Police College, a place that I am no stranger at, having had the honour to be part of three march pasts—and it’s an amazing thing to see. They join the special bond of the Ontario police community that links one generation to another, one police service to another, one person to another.

We’re making the dream of becoming a police officer more attainable for those who want to serve. Just a few weeks ago, the Premier and I announced that we’ve eliminated Ontario Police College basic constable training fees. We’re also adding more spots for recruits, so we can graduate up to 2,000 cadets a year. This means more people on the ground, more boots on the ground to protect our communities—a continuation of a time-honoured profession that is essential to keeping our province safe, peaceful and free. Together with our police partners, we honour the tradition while marching boldly towards the future.

As I’ve said on a number of occasions in this House, the most fundamental duty that we all have is to uphold the safety of all Ontarians. On that note, I am proud to say that there has never been a Premier or a government in my generation that has cared as much about our public safety as our government, under Premier Ford. We have made it a priority to keep everyone in Ontario safe. Our government’s support for Ontario police officers is absolute and constant, and we are proud to support our police officers and everyone else who keeps Ontario safe each day. Because of the work that police do, Ontarians feel safe in their communities.

Monsieur le Président, je suis fier de soutenir nos policiers et tous ceux qui assurent la sécurité de l’Ontario tous les jours. Grâce au travail de la police, les Ontariens et les Ontariennes se sentent en sécurité dans leurs communautés.

Mr. Speaker, the theme of this year’s Police Week is “Building Bridges: Celebrating Police-Community Partnerships.” Through partnerships, we make progress. When we foster connections between police services, social services and community, we are all much better off.

Just a couple of weeks ago, we marked Family Service Day. We recognized the work being done between police services, first responders and social services to address intimate partner violence, human trafficking, and to provide appropriate, timely crisis response.

Our government is funding meaningful partnerships, including mobile crisis response teams. These teams consist of police officers and crisis professionals working together to respond to situations where mental health or addictions may be a factor. They safely de-escalate dangerous situations, and this is important.

I also think about the work being done in the community because of the initiatives that police officers take to care for the communities they serve. Just a few months ago, Project Hope began, thanks to the leadership of Toronto Police Constable Farzad Ghotbi and Detective Constable Mustafa Popalzai. I met them both; they were actually here in the chamber, and we had a chance to speak with them after, as introduced by the member from Kitchener South–Hespeler. I had the honour of supporting their community work by volunteering for a supply drive to support our government’s humanitarian aid for victims of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria.

Again, police officers are our community heroes. Police officers enter a profession with inherent risk, and they deserve our respect.

In closing, we cannot take our safety for granted. Let us take a moment to thank police officers for their commitment to service and to keeping Ontario safe each and every day.

We’ve said this before: A safe Ontario is a strong Ontario. Qui dit Ontario sécuritaire dit Ontario fort.

Before I speak to Bill 75, I’m sad to share that this morning Ontario woke up as a province in grief. Today, as many of us know, we are sadly mourning another officer murdered in the line of duty. We are devastated by the loss of Ontario Provincial Police Sergeant Eric Mueller, and we are praying for the other officers who have been injured in this tragedy in eastern Ontario. We anxiously await their recovery. Madam Speaker, as details emerge, we will be moving for a moment of silence later this morning. Our hearts are with the families of the officers impacted by this senseless event. Our thoughts are also with the brotherhood and sisterhood of the Ontario police community. These are special people who put themselves on the line each and every day. As I’ve said many times here, everyone has a right to feel safe in their own home and community.

Madame la Présidente, tous ont le droit de se sentir en sécurité chez eux et dans leur collectivité.

Again, we will have more to say on this later.

I’m delighted to speak on this bill, because I believe in this place. It’s such an honour for me to be here and sit with my colleagues in this Legislature and be part of a righteous opportunity to be part of democracy each day, a place where we can all contribute to bend the moral arc, the fabric of the values of who we are as Ontarians, and understanding what matters most. This place is utterly magnificent, and it belongs to absolutely everyone who calls Ontario home.

I can tell you, after my election on June 2, proudly representing the people of York Centre, I really entered this building for my very first time. Although I may have been here insignificantly throughout my youth, I don’t remember those visits, unfortunately. When I walked down these stairs for the first time and asked one of our own guides in our home of democracy to show me around, as an elected member, it was overwhelming, the sense of awe that I was here.

We’re here at so many times in our collective history, since this building was built—most recently, just this past Saturday, at the 21-gun salute and ceremony for the coronation of King Charles III. God save the King. We have witnessed so many events and miracles that have been part of this building’s history. Ontario is huge, and we know that, and our views are long because our province is so huge, and we know that as well. But we know that experience tells us never to take a clear sky for granted. Change can be abrupt and dramatic, and the biggest storms seem to appear out of nowhere and challenge even the most experienced forecasters.

When I go back to my first minutes in this building, shortly after my election, and how utterly magnificent this building is—it didn’t dawn on me how many parts of this building have seen generations that need repairs and restoration, because we only see the beauty, we only see the carvings in the wood, we only see the majesty that exists. As I came to know here, as many of us have, walking the stairs, as the member said, in the days prior, where the halls can be hot and in the summer they can be even hotter—we understand that this is a dome of democracy, something amazingly precious. I wonder, if this building could talk about its life, what it could reveal about its story.

Our democracy reminds us that we need to understand change, and we have to understand that change changes with time.

Madam Speaker, the place is defined by our dreams. It speaks to a present written—a current present; not a present, necessarily, that we give somebody, but it could be that as well—by our shared responsibilities, and it speaks to the future potential of those who will succeed us here one day.

When I look around on all sides of the House, it really is gratifying to see how much appreciation people have of this place. And I’m grateful for my colleague and mentor and friend, our government House leader, who has really led the freshman class to appreciating all that this chamber, all that this Legislature tells to us.

These hallowed halls are telling us that we will carry on in past traditions—and that, Madam Speaker, is one of the reasons why you are in the chair. You’re a presiding officer, and this is part of our tradition. But there’s more that exists. There’s the bricks. There is the culture of the stonework. There’s the respect of where these lands sit and how they sit. It talks about our history and those generations who were here long before us.

It’s amazing that we should never lose focus on what this building has meant to the approximate 1,980 people, since Confederation, who were elected to serve here. I remember when the Clerk of the House told me, on my very first few days, my number. Each of us has a number; they can’t take that away from us. My number is 1,947. When I look around the room, those who have been in so many proceeding Parliaments—their numbers are lower. When you think about the honour that we have, to be one of less than 2,000 people who call this place home—I still can’t get over that. I think of the courage, dignity and the respect that our predecessors who were here had that allowed us to serve on this day, that allowed us to serve from different faiths and different backgrounds, that allowed us to understand that this historic building has hosted numerous gatherings over the years.

We’ve celebrated, just in the last number of months since I’ve been here—understanding this is a gathering place for many. Every day, there’s a reception, and when I miss a reception or I don’t know about it, I feel that I’ve missed out on something special in our own building. We’ve celebrated, in recent months, Black History Month, and I want to thank everyone, including our Associate Minister of Women’s Social and Economic Opportunity and the member from Ajax, who put on this event. This event happened here in this building. I think of Persian Heritage Month, with the delicious food and teas that they served, and I thank our Minister of Children, Community and Social Services and the member from Carleton and others who attended that event. I recall the lunar new year celebration and the member from Richmond Hill, who took leadership in that; and the member who led Hellenic Heritage Month, in March—this was a wonderful opportunity—the member from Oakville North–Burlington. We celebrated Sikh Heritage Month. We celebrated Dutch Heritage Month. We celebrated Jewish Heritage Month and Polish Heritage Month and South Asian Heritage Month. And only in Ontario and only in this building, this magnificent dome of democracy, could we have done something as beautiful, because as the government House leader has said and the Premier has said and I have said, our diversity is what makes Ontario and this Legislature unbelievably special; parce que notre diversité est notre plus grande réussite.

Nothing can ever replicate the diversity that we have in Ontario, and I tell people this in my riding of York Centre that is incredibly diverse; I tell it whenever I travel. It is something that we celebrate. This is something that will never be replicated likely anywhere in the world.

When we look at this building, a building that was built a long time ago, it has not undergone, as the member said, a major renovation in slightly over 100 years—and I would argue it depends on what you call a renovation, because when I saw the old pictures of Premier Davis or Premier Rae or Premier Peterson sitting here, the carpet may have looked different and the chair covers may have looked different.

But really and truly, nothing lasts forever, and we need a building that will serve us for tomorrow. We need to make sure that from a safety perspective and from an operational standards perspective, this building will serve parliamentarians for years to come.

Even when it comes to safety—and again, I want to thank the leaders of the Clerk’s office and the Speaker’s office and the government House leader’s office who take the emergency preparedness so seriously. When we look forward, we’re confronted with new challenges that we never, historically, had to deal with. It is still a great honour, with ease, as a member—or as we have our staff be able to walk through our building with such ease and comfort. But there are technological improvements that must be made as science and technology changes, and we have to be part of that change. We can’t take our safety for granted. We can’t compromise on this.

We must make the investments necessary to ensure that everyone who works here is not only safe but works in a healthy workplace. This is absolutely important.

I want to acknowledge the importance of the visitors and dignitaries who come in this building. Again, we are so excited to showcase this building because it is magnificent. We don’t tell our dignitaries and our guests—the behind-the-scenes tour. But we know that in order for us to continue showing off this building for generations to come, it has to have the physical improvements and infrastructure changes that it needs.

I want to recognize in this workplace, in this special dome of democracy, the members and the staff and the legislative staff and the custodial staff, the special constables and peace officers who keep us safe—these are amazing people—the librarians, and everyone else who works as part of the House of democracy.

When we have a safe community, we have absolutely everything, and I spoke about this when I started my remarks. When we have a Queen’s Park for tomorrow that will allow this to go another 100 years, our successors many generations down will thank us for the efforts and leadership we did in 2023 to pass this bill—understanding that we are now laying the seeds for a foundation for tomorrow, just like those when this building was built did. So this bill is a big deal.

If passed, the Queen’s Park Restoration Act, 2023, will establish a secretariat within government tasked with planning and executing a full-scale restoration of the Legislative Building at Queen’s Park, including temporary relocation of operations. As the government House leader has said and others who are on the committee have said, we’re learning from people who have done this. We’re not reinventing the wheel to start with nothing. That’s the beauty of seeing other houses of democracy that have already gone through the restoration—to have the best practices, to learn what they have learned, to take the nuggets of the information forward so that we can benefit.

This government will leverage its significant expertise in managing this large-scale infrastructure project—and we’re doing that. You just have to look behind Whitney Block, and you see that we’re taking buildings, the Hearst Block and the Macdonald Block that needed renovations, so that we will have offices for those people in Ontario public service—first-class offices, safe offices—and for the people who work here and for the members. We deserve nothing less.

The Queen’s Park Restoration Act, 2023, will provide a strong foundation on which government is given the authority and accountability necessary to execute this in a timely matter.

As I wrap up some final thoughts, I want to say how proud we all should feel that we took our place in this building in a moment in time, because it doesn’t happen to everyone; we’re not all that fortunate—that those who saw fit to elect us brought us to this place. That’s why, each time I walk in the door, I always say to myself, “How blessed are we?”—not “how blessed am I?”—because it doesn’t matter who we are or who we love or who we worship or how we worship or where we came from or how we got here, this place is ours. It belongs to everyone, and what matters is that we’re here together, diverse and different and absolutely incredible.

I really want to again give my thanks to everyone for their dedication who works in this building, because they are heroes.

As I consider myself proud that this is an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to stand for election, to run for election and to be right here, it just reminds me of how blessed we are.

So I hope everyone will support Bill 75, because we believe in our province and in our future; parce que nous croyons en notre province et en notre avenir.

We will all take inspiration in knowing—and I’ve said this before, but the lines fit again. This province is big. It’s bigger than all of us. It’s more important than any of us. Ontario was here before us; it will be here long after us, and most importantly, it belongs to every one of us.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Merci. Meegwetch.

I want to thank the member for the question. As I’ve said in this House many times, everyone has a right to feel safe in their own homes and their own communities.

Let me give you a few examples as to how Ontario’s police services are stepping up and making a real difference. A joint force investigation by OPP and LaSalle police seized more than two kilograms of cocaine near Windsor, and just a month ago in Fort Frances, four were charged with drug trafficking following the seizure of $100,000 worth of cocaine and a cache of firearms. Earlier this year, Ottawa Police Service was able to take 46 firearms destined for criminals and criminal organizations off the street.

I want to thank the brave men and women of the OPP, LaSalle Police Service and the Ottawa Police Service for taking actions to keep us safe. We will always have your backs.

Monsieur le Président, nous continuerons de faire ce qui est difficile, et nous continuerons de réaliser ce qui est difficile, pour assurer la sécurité de l’Ontario.

We just heard this past Thursday about the great work of the Toronto Police Service, and we’re proud that this investigation was partially funded by the government of Ontario. Toronto Police Service seized an amazing 671 kilograms of illicit drugs with an estimated street value of over $58 million. This is the largest single-day drug bust in the service’s history. I would like to thank and congratulate Chief James Ramer and all the front-line officers who were involved in this historic bust.

Monsieur le Président, grâce au travail de la police, les Ontariens se sentent en sécurité dans leurs communautés, aujourd’hui et tous les jours.

I want to thank my friend for the question. It’s an important issue.

Officers can’t just leave the impacts of those traumatic images behind at the end of the day, but for too long that’s what was expected of police officers by the public, by their superiors—even by the officers themselves.

The Police Association of Ontario was very excited to learn of Ontario’s $45-million investment in supporting the mental health of first responders in our last budget.

My ministry is also working closely with the police associations to continue to make improvements to mental health for our officers.

I can tell the front-line officers this: Your government has your back today and every day.

Monsieur le Président, je suis fier de soutenir nos policiers, qui nous protègent au quotidien.

I’m proud to say that our government has invested over $1 million in the Runnymede project for first responders.

We will continue to work with police associations to build awareness.

Yesterday morning, I was proud to attend the PAO annual meeting. I’d like to acknowledge Mark Baxter, the president, who is with us today.

Monsieur le Président, nous travaillons avec tous les organismes d’application de la loi de la province pour assurer la sécurité des Ontariens.