The member’s all over the map.

My question is actually to the member from Etobicoke–Lakeshore. Her and I have obviously shared the commitment to adopting and raising as our own fur babies those that have come from shelters. I can tell you, we adopted in the 2011 election a five-month-old baby dog that was born without any eyes and was taken back to the Ottawa Humane Society, because nobody wanted to raise her because it was too difficult.

Fast-forward to when I was heritage minister and I went to visit with Todd Smith in Belleville, he took me to their humane society, which was in dire need of an upgrade. He said one thing to me: “Lisa, I don’t want to deal with Joe when you take home a cat or a dog.” Of course, I took home a massive cat that had been abandoned.

The reason I’m asking you this question—it may not necessarily be in the bill, but I think, from one animal lover to another, it seems to me our biggest challenges can often be at the humane societies or at the shelters, who do not have enough support. I’m wondering, in your experience as former PA to this area but also as a pet lover, what your thoughts are in order for us to be better able to serve those shelters.

Quite dogged.

My question is for the member for Haliburton–Kawartha Lakes–Brock. She has been known in this assembly and throughout the province and the country as being a strong advocate for children, but particularly those who have been sex trafficked. She has been a leader.

I had the opportunity, when I was in this portfolio as the minister, to work with her in advancing that. One of the things that shocked me—and I think would shock most people here—is that a number of our youth that are in care tend to be susceptible, and many have been subjected to trafficking as a result of the lack of oversight. I’m wondering, given the work that she has done, is she pleased to see our government’s agenda move forward on supporting children in care, and if she’s ever seen anything quite like this bill to protect children in the province of Ontario.

I want to commend the member from Hamilton Mountain. Of course, it’s not an easy feat to speak that long on a piece of legislation, and she was able to complete that—

Interjections.

She did indicate that she did support a piece of the legislation which was on the privacy aspect. I was in committee while she was there, and we heard three deputations where that was supported.

My question is a very simple one: Is she going to support this piece of legislation and move it forward after she was able to air her concerns?

Wow, you’re really digging. You have to rely on the media?

I think everyone in here can agree that there should be zero tolerance of children being bullied in a classroom, on their school bus or anywhere in the province of Ontario. I’ve had the opportunity to stand both in opposition and here in government to make my mark as best I could to support children who may be vulnerable to such attacks, whether it was anti-Indigenous, anti-Black racism, for children with special needs, the LGBTQ+ population, Muslim students, Asian students and Indo-Canadian students.

I think that we can all agree that every student deserves a safe place to learn in the province of Ontario and to get to school. But since October 7, some children in this province have been impacted quite negatively, and that’s the Jewish students both in Ottawa, Toronto and elsewhere across the province. Jewish day schools have been shot up and children in our classrooms in different parts of the province have dealt with racism. These Jewish students are beneficiaries, of course, of increased Holocaust remembrance education, but we need to do more.

I want to talk a little bit about Tejaswinhi Srinivas, who had to take to the Ottawa Citizen this week to talk about her five-year-old child who was on the school bus and said this: “Someone on my bus told everyone Jewish” person “to raise their hand. But I knew not to do it, Daddy. They sounded mean.” Can you image that that’s happening in Ontario today?

Every member here has said on occasion, at least once a year, that “never again” is now. “Never again” is now. “Never again” is now. And now is the time for all of us to stand up for zero tolerance of bullying of Jewish students in the province of Ontario.

Three million dollars.

I wanted to say thank you for a very thoughtful presentation from the member from Ottawa Centre. I listened intently, obviously, because many of the organizations he mentioned, in particular Rideauwood as well as CHC in Somerset, are very important to the constituents that I represent as well, and I’ve had interactions with them over the past 18 years. I know our government has done a lot of work—and I appreciate the member opposite bringing the fact in that we have made some investments, including at Dave Smith treatment centre, including at the Queensway Carleton health unit and of course the nurse practitioner-led clinic.

But I do have a question for him, and that is, in his constituency he holds the Royal Ottawa hospital as well as the Roberts Smart Centre for very vulnerable youth. I believe both of those need expansions. In terms of the Royal, it needs an emergency centre, and certainly Roberts Smart, dealing with the most vulnerable youth in the province of Ontario—it’s almost heartbreaking to see the place that they’re actually encased in—and I call it “encased.” I’d like his views on those two properties. Well, it’s actually one property but two very different types of mental health institutions.

One of the things that really bothered most Canadians, not just the people from Pictou County, Nova Scotia, about Westray was the lack of accountability. The member opposite mentioned that. They evaded that type of accountability for quite some time. It was people like Vern Theriault, who is a friend of mine and who has written a book on Westray, that advocated for the Westray act in Parliament, where I was a staffer at the time.

What I would ask the member opposite is, does he have any further suggestion of accountability mechanisms that he doesn’t see within this legislation, and if so, what are they? I’d be interested, not just as a member of this assembly but as somebody who comes from the community where the Westray mine disaster occurred.

You can’t correct her record. No point of order.

Point of order.

I apologize to my colleague for interrupting for that reason.

I just want to back the tractor up. A lot of gall coming from an urban member from Toronto who is part of the Ontario Liberal Party. When I showed up here in 2006 and we were debating the budget of the day, shortly after I was sworn in, the first thing we talked about were cuts to the agricultural community. How can you stand there and speak to this caucus about your record?

Speaker, I wanted to introduce a staff member of mine. Many of you will know him and probably have been on his podcast: Vincenzo Calla, who is a University of Ottawa student, and he’s joining me up here today from Nepean.

My statement today is about Honorary Colonel Dan MacKay. Dan, of course, is a decorated reservist, having served 44 years in uniform and having commanded the Cameron Highlanders of Ottawa twice. He served as the deputy director of history and heritage at the national defence department and he served as the aide de camp to our Lieutenant Governor for over 30 years. He is a Knight of Justice of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St. John Ambulance and he is one of the most humble men that I have ever met.

He is dedicated and he is committed to all things Ottawa, but he’s also—and this will surprise you when I say it—an unlikely feminist. Dan has been a girl dad. He has been the biggest defender and champion of his wife, Fran, who is now, in her own right, the Honorary Lieutenant-Colonel of the Governor General’s Foot Guards.

He is a big champion of the Honorary Lieutenant-Colonel of the Cameron Highlanders, Barbara Farber, and he is a steadfast reminder to all of us of how important our history is by recognizing Lillian Freiman, the “poppy lady,” who first brought the poppy to Canada, who founded the Royal Canadian Legion, and whose home is now the army officers’ mess in the city of Ottawa.

Dan has been a champion and a reminder that women are important in Canada, and as much as he has accolades in the military and throughout the city of Ottawa, he has always quietly stood behind every woman he has supported.

There we go.

Point of order, Speaker.

I rise on a point of order to welcome a former colleague of mine and yours: Cam Jackson, who served in this Parliament under a number of different leaders—I think, 22 leaders?

Interjection: Years.

He served, obviously, as a minister of the crown—a Minister of Tourism, as most remember him by—but he also served in opposition with me.

He also became the mayor of Burlington for a brief period of time.

We thank you for your service, and we’re so glad that you’re here.

It’s very important. Today, in this Ontario Legislative Assembly, someone is turning 43. It is the member from Windsor, who worked on my first campaign in 2006. He doesn’t look a day older than when he was at Carleton University—

Happy birthday, Andrew Dowie.

Barnsdale.

Thank you to the member from Whitby. He has been a long-time friend and colleague. I have to say, I’m always so impressed when I’m with him because he does take this chamber very seriously, but he knows all of the issues that are hard that we need to discuss. One of the things I think he could agree with, because Whitby is very similar to Barrhaven, where it is fast-growing, very attractive to young families—it is in the city but not quite downtown so it provides us with a great degree of flexibility, and we get to have it both ways.

I’m excited about the Building Faster Fund, the BFF. We were recently the host in Ottawa to the Premier where Ottawa received $37 million. We were excited about that. Because here’s the thing: Growth needs also to pay for growth because when I build that house, it means I need to build a road, a school and a health care system as well, and that’s the reality of what the BFF does.

And I can say that when I was heritage minister, we had unprecedented investments into that ministry and into the sector in order to do just that. So there are programs in place that do allow it. I know that Minister Ford, who now has the heritage file, has been working diligently across the province in order to support that. But I would be happy—I know the debate doesn’t allow us to have a back-and-forth exchange, but I wouldn’t mind sitting down with you over a cup of coffee—actually I drink tea—and we could engage on some of your ideas.

I don’t actually support more taxes. I think that we’re already taxed to the limit. We just have to figure out how we could better allocate supports that we already have.

But let me speak directly to your constituents who I believe—if the breadbasket of Canada is in Saskatchewan and different parts of the Prairies, certainly the greenhouses are part of your area and they do great work. A lot of food production is happening there. We have to look at, for them, environmental supports. We have to look at business supports. We have to look at what is happening internationally because they are highly dealt with with trade. We also don’t want to have your tomatoes be overlooked on the grocery bench because Mexico is taking the market. So we have to make sure that energy prices are low, that we have red tape reduction and that we’re looking at the environment—and I see our environment minister here, and she will be right on that, I’m sure.

When you look at that, you think that’s actually bigger than the GDP of Manitoba. It’s bigger than mining, forestry and natural resources all put together, and it creates tens of thousands of jobs right across each one of our communities. So it’s really important that we look at, also, the economic aspect as well as the cultural aspect of our heritage properties.

I’m happy to take his concerns directly to the minister. I know that the Minister of Heritage is diligent in his work. He knows that he has to work with his organization, the Ontario Heritage Trust, who would be a great advocate for the member opposite if there is anything in his particular community that he wants to support, but I think that would be a start, and I thank him for his question.