A few weeks ago, I had the chance to attend a funding announcement at Bancroft Fitness. This $71,700 capital grant from the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport through the Trillium fund allowed them to upgrade their HVAC system to ensure a safe exercise environment and allow more comfortable exercise temperatures for their brand new hydrotherapy pool.

Bancroft Fitness is a unique environment. It operates as a not-for-profit, small-town-style gym. Residents of Bancroft and the surrounding area can join the gym for a minimal membership fee which includes typical group classes like yoga, meditation, high- and low-impact fitness, and more.

Speaker, what’s truly unique about this facility is the connection between health and fitness championed by Dr. Carolyn Brown over 20 years ago. She had a patient who was suffering from soft tissue pain after a car accident, and she realized that she couldn’t use medicine to help that patient, so she partnered with a kinesiologist, Angela Carrera, to create a new fitness centre.

Bancroft Fitness promotes healthy fitness habits for individuals of all needs and all activity levels in direct partnership with the Bancroft Community Family Health Team. This is the first fitness facility in Ontario that partners directly with an Ontario family health team. They provide programs like cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation, where they provide exercise, education and counselling. This is health care innovation.

I want to express my congratulations to Bancroft Fitness on the improvements to your facility, and my thanks to the ministry and the Ontario Trillium fund for their support.

My question is to the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing. The Conservatives have until tomorrow to submit a better affordable housing action plan or miss out on $357 million in federal funding. The minister likes to say this is unfair, but the facts speak for themselves. This government is on track to build just 8% of the homes they said they would build by 2025.

My question is this: Is this government going to submit a better affordable housing action plan tomorrow, or are Ontarians going to miss out?

Ontario has the worst housing crisis and homelessness crisis we’ve had in decades. It has never been more expensive to rent or buy a home; even your own budget says that.

My question is this: Is this government going to fix up and resubmit a credible affordable housing action plan, or are we all going to miss out?

Interjections.

To the member from Kiiwetinoong: You noted that there was no funding for consultation with all the communities affected by the Ring of Fire. I wonder if you could talk a little about how many times members from northern First Nations communities have come to Queen’s Park and not received meetings, not had meetings with the Premier.

I’d like to thank the member from Kiiwetinoong for his presentation. The analysis and reaction to the budget are coming through. One of the stakeholders, Children’s Mental Health Ontario, has said that the budget is not meeting the need for urgent and sustained funding in mental health care and they also noted the long wait times for services in the community for children and youth in mental health care.

The member talked about the suicide crisis in his community. Can you please share with members of the House, particularly the government side, what should have been in the budget, what action does the government need to take in order to address the growing mental health care and addiction crisis we’re seeing among children and youth?