I want to thank the members for Burlington, Spadina–Fort York, Markham–Unionville, Kitchener South–Hespeler and Kitchener Centre for your words of support and for your passion on this issue. I’m really grateful, and, frankly, it lifts my spirits to see that we are all willing to work together to help protect our kids.

I also want to thank Dr. Charlene Doak-Gebauer—she’s here in the Legislature—for reaching out to me, but especially for all the work that she has done and that she continues to do on this important issue.

If the bill passes today, as I hope it will, it will be the beginning of some meaningful changes to help protect our kids, and it would be a beautiful and positive way to end our session.

I want to end by also thanking my staff, including my staff watching from Ottawa and my OLIP intern, for all the help to get to this point today.

Lastly, I want to thank my caucus colleagues for always being so supportive—and really, to all MPPs supporting this bill.

I seek unanimous consent that, notwithstanding standing order 45(b)(iv), the time for debate on opposition day motion number 2 regarding support for primary care providers be apportioned as follows: 56 minutes to each of the recognized parties and eight minutes to the independent members as a group.

Interjections.

My question is for the Minister of Children, Community and Social Services.

Numerous families, including Sarah and her son Félix Demers, in Ottawa–Vanier are facing unreasonable challenges with the Ontario Autism Program. Sarah started the process to get help for her son three years ago, but she came across multiple barriers and wait-lists. As a result, her son Félix, who is now five years old, has aged out of programs in school. These children are being left behind.

What measures has the minister taken to address the wait-lists, ensuring timely access to essential support services for children with autism spectrum disorder?

Families face significant uncertainty while waiting for support from the autism program. Families are receiving no assistance and no communication as to when they might be able to get help.

Sarah told me, “We have now been waiting years for help, during the most vital years of our son’s developmental stages and just remain on the OAP’s wait-list as a generic number.”

The lack of communication is distressing and unacceptable. The least the government could do to reduce the distress of those waiting families is to establish a user-friendly communications platform through which families could at least track the progress of their applications.

What steps will the minister take to ensure that families, including Félix’s, have transparent and timely access to information regarding the status of their applications?

Last night, we heard vibrant testimonies as to why private member’s Bill 9, Safe and Healthy Communities Act (Addressing Gun Violence), moved by the member for Scarborough–Guildwood, is so important to support. Bill 9 is about supporting victims. It’s about supporting families traumatized by gun violence and about making our communities safe. Bill 9 is also about prevention, which is so important in the fight against this public health issue.

Last night, the government referred to their Roadmap to Wellness as a reason to say no to Bill 9, but the Roadmap to Wellness doesn’t mention gun violence even one time. So what the government is saying to these victims is, “You can wait until we develop a program for you.” Well, Bill 9 would make services available to an existing system with expanded capacity. It is difficult to understand why any member in this House would refuse to support such common-sense measures.

Dans ma circonscription d’Ottawa–Vanier, l’impact de la violence armée est trop bien ressenti. Quarante-quatre fusillades ont eu lieu cette année à Ottawa. Il est insoutenable de continuer d’aller à des funérailles sans pouvoir expliquer aux parents et aux proches ce que le gouvernement fait concrètement pour enrayer la violence armée.

Le projet de loi 9 de la députée de Scarborough–Guildwood est un pas concret pour les aider. J’encourage tous les membres de cette Chambre à voter en faveur.

I’m very pleased to stand here and pay tribute to former Scarborough West MPP Jim Brown. Jim Brown was a man of firm values and virtues who believed in the values of family. I admire that MPP Brown was a resolute defender of children’s rights and safety, and he is to be commended for his private member’s bill mandating background checks for those who will hold positions of power over children. By obtaining the support of the Ontario Teachers’ Federation, he broke down barriers in a way that is uncommon in our world that is too often defined by red-versus-blue, labour-versus-capital, urban-versus-rural political divides. MPP Brown’s effort was one of those common-sense issues that transcends partisanship and appeals to all of our common decency. MPP Brown was horrified by instances of child molestation and chose to immediately take action.

Another issue for which I owe an enormous amount of respect for the late MPP Brown is the participation of women in sports. There is absolutely no activity in this world which should be reserved for boys and not open to girls, and MPP Brown made great strides toward a more inclusive world through his coaching of women’s hockey. MPP Brown was a lifelong hockey fan, and he passed that love on to his daughter. It was his strong belief that girls should be just as big a part of hockey as boys, and he even took that as far as to enrol the girls’ hockey team he coached in a boys’ tournament. This man was far ahead of his time on this issue, as many men of his generation would have scoffed at the idea of encouraging a daughter to play hockey. These strong family-oriented issues are MPP Brown’s legacy, and I am so happy to stand here and honour his legacy.

Thank you to his wife Magdalene Bethune, his daughter Roseanne Boileau, son-in-law Billy Boileau, grandson William Boileau and granddaughter Elizabeth Boileau for being here today. Thank you for supporting him so that he could do the important work that he did.