Councillor Angela Caputo, who moved the unanimously adopted Sault Ste. Marie motion, has a message for this House after their recent and heartbreaking mass murder-suicide: “I ask Premier Ford to reconsider the stance”—of his government. “Angie Sweeney deserved better. Those three innocent children deserved better. Women in this province deserve better.”

Speaker, on Monday, we were absolutely shocked to hear the Solicitor General dismiss the top recommendation from the Renfrew inquest as an empty gesture of symbolism.

My question to the Premier is, will he join the 63 municipalities that have already adopted similar motions by substantially declaring intimate partner violence an epidemic and committing the necessary resources to keep women and children safe in Ontario?

Interjections.

Last week, on October 23, four people, including three children aged six, seven and 12, were fatally shot in Sault Ste. Marie. Police are calling the shootings a result of intimate partner violence. The Premier called the news “gut-wrenching,” but his words ring hollow when he refuses to even act on the first recommendation of the Renfrew inquest, which is to declare intimate partner violence an epidemic.

I’ll give the Premier one more chance today to stand with survivors. Will the Premier support cities and their public health officials by finally declaring intimate partner violence an epidemic?

Speaker, we need to talk about how intimate partner violence harms and kills children as they live with their mothers. On average, a woman is killed by an intimate partner every six days in Canada, and as of September 30, there have been 46 femicides in Ontario alone, and that number has now become higher. The Canadian Domestic Homicide Prevention Initiative has found at least 30 children are killed annually in Canada by one of their parents.

Speaker, the clock is running out. When will the Premier finally take action to protect children and their mothers by declaring intimate partner violence an epidemic?

Interjections.