On Tuesday, June 28, 2022, the jury recommendations from the Renfrew inquest into the deaths of Carol Culleton, Anastasia Kuzyk and Nathalie Warmerdam were presented. Eighty-six recommendations for change were made, most of them directed to the provincial government.

The very first recommendation from that inquest was for the provincial government to declare intimate partner violence an epidemic—a simple, yet incredibly important and impactful step that this Conservative government rejected. The government is terribly wrong to reject or resist this recommendation, and tomorrow they have an opportunity to do the right thing by passing Bill 173, the Intimate Partner Violence Epidemic Act.

From Windsor across Essex county to Toronto, from Hamilton to Milton and Oshawa, from Niagara, Lanark to Renfrew, from Ottawa to Sault Ste. Marie and Timmins, from Mississauga to Sudbury and Thunder Bay, from Sarnia, Brantford, London to Brampton, just to name a few, 94 municipalities have declared intimate partner violence an epidemic, yet the Conservatives refuse to.

We must call this gender-based violence what it is: an epidemic. The Conservative government claimed intimate partner violence is not an epidemic because that term is reserved for the spread of infectious or communicable disease. That is simply semantics, Speaker. Not only dictionary definitions but data proves otherwise, and unfortunately this epidemic continues to claim lives.

We need to use every tool available to make a difference. There is one we have right here at our fingertips, and I call on every member of the Legislature, including the Premier, to do the right thing and pass Bill 173 tomorrow.