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May 10, 2007

38th Parliament, 2nd Session

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Hansard Transcripts

Votes and Proceedings

Orders and Notices

Hansard Transcripts 2007-May-10 (PDF)

LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF ONTARIO

ASSEMBLÉE LÉGISLATIVE DE L'ONTARIO

Thursday 10 May 2007 Jeudi 10 mai 2007

PRIVATE MEMBERS'

PUBLIC BUSINESS

PRESCRIPTION MONITORING ACT, 2007 /

LOI DE 2007 SUR LA SURVEILLANCE

PHARMACEUTIQUE

LINCOLN ALEXANDER DAY ACT, 2007 /

LOI DE 2007 SUR LE JOUR

DE LINCOLN ALEXANDER

PRESCRIPTION MONITORING ACT, 2007 /

LOI DE 2007 SUR LA SURVEILLANCE

PHARMACEUTIQUE

LINCOLN ALEXANDER DAY ACT, 2007 /

LOI DE 2007 SUR LE JOUR

DE LINCOLN ALEXANDER

MEMBERS' STATEMENTS

NURSES

UNIVERSITY RESEARCH

AND INNOVATION

SIGN LANGUAGE IN SCHOOLS

CHATHAM–KENT

MINISTRY OF CITIZENSHIP

AND IMMIGRATION GRANTS

MILL CLOSURE

MCMASTER UNIVERSITY

NURSES

ELECTORAL REFORM

REPORTS BY COMMITTEES

STANDING COMMITTEE ON

GENERAL GOVERNMENT

STANDING COMMITTEE ON FINANCE

AND ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

INTRODUCTION OF BILLS

NO MORE FINANCING TIERS

IN EDUCATION ACT, 2007 /

LOI DE 2007 ÉLIMINANT LES PALIERS

DE FINANCEMENT EN ÉDUCATION

MOTIONS

CONSIDERATION OF BILL 165

OTTAWA SENATORS

VISITORS

OTTAWA SENATORS

DEFERRED VOTES

BUDGET MEASURES AND INTERIM

APPROPRIATION ACT, 2007 /

LOI DE 2007 SUR LES MESURES

BUDGÉTAIRES ET L'AFFECTATION

ANTICIPÉE DE CRÉDITS

VISITORS

ORAL QUESTIONS

MINISTRY OF CITIZENSHIP

AND IMMIGRATION GRANTS

EDUCATION FUNDING

ENDANGERED SPECIES

MINISTRY OF CITIZENSHIP

AND IMMIGRATION GRANTS

ANTI-BULLYING INITIATIVES

MINISTRY OF CITIZENSHIP

AND IMMIGRATION GRANTS

WATER QUALITY

MINISTRY OF CITIZENSHIP

AND IMMIGRATION GRANTS

PETITIONS

STEVENSON MEMORIAL HOSPITAL

GTA POOLING

LONG-TERM CARE

REGULATION OF ZOOS

SCHOOL FACILITIES

GTA POOLING

FREDERICK BANTING HOMESTEAD

REGULATION OF ZOOS

HIGHWAY 26

COMMUNITY MEDIATION

SCHOOL TRANSPORTATION

GTA POOLING

LONG-TERM CARE

BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE

VISITORS

ORDERS OF THE DAY

STRENGTHENING BUSINESS THROUGH

A SIMPLER TAX SYSTEM ACT, 2007 /

LOI DE 2007 VISANT À RENFORCER

LES ENTREPRISES GRÂCE À UN RÉGIME

FISCAL PLUS SIMPLE

INDEPENDENT POLICE

REVIEW ACT, 2007 /

LOI DE 2007 SUR L'EXAMEN

INDÉPENDANT DE LA POLICE

The House met at 1000.

Prayers.

PRIVATE MEMBERS'

PUBLIC BUSINESS

PRESCRIPTION MONITORING ACT, 2007 /

LOI DE 2007 SUR LA SURVEILLANCE

PHARMACEUTIQUE

Mr. Ramal moved second reading of the following bill:

Bill 108,

An Act to monitor the prescribing of certain drugs / Projet de loi 108, Loi visant à surveiller la prescription de certains médicaments.

The Deputy Speaker (Mr. Bruce Crozier): Pursuant to standing order 96, Mr. Ramal, you have up to 10 minutes. The floor is yours.

Mr. Khalil Ramal (London—Fanshawe): I am privileged and honoured to be given the chance to introduce this bill, Bill 108,

An Act to monitor the prescribing of certain drugs.

Before I start, I'd like to introduce and welcome, in the west gallery, our guests today: Ada Giudice-Tompson and Rick Tompson, who lost a family member; Laurie Miller, who also lost a family member; and Marvin Siegel, a supporter of the bill and also a patient advocate. Hopefully all of my colleagues will join me to welcome the guests who came here today.

Very often in this place we introduce a bill concerning a certain political issue to advance our political careers, to mention and to indicate about certain issues in our ridings across the province of Ontario or to score a political point. But this has nothing to do with a political point and has nothing to do with political issues. Today I will speak about a humanitarian aspect of our life, about a humanitarian issue and about the lives of many people across the province of Ontario who suffer from this very important issue.

Two years ago, a lady came to my office. She explained to me about this important subject, which is to create monitoring for the prescription of certain drugs. That lady first lost her husband, and a year or two years later she lost her son—all due to narcotic drugs being prescribed and dispensed and people taking them without any monitoring. And what happened? Two overdosed and they died.

This issue touched my heart. I brought it to this place. I tried to explain it to the Minister of Health, to many people, to my colleagues, and then I started reading about it. I went to the Internet. I talked to many people, and many people phoned me back. They explained to me how important this topic is to them, because some of them lost their family members, some of them lost friends, and some of them lost loved ones. And all of us in this province lost a lot of great Ontarians.

In this province, our role as MPPs is to be the voice of the people we represent, to bring forward issues that concern many people in this province. That's why today I've been given the honour to introduce such an important bill for many people across the province of Ontario—especially when I read the statistics. In 2003, 101 Ontarians died from narcotic drug overdoses.

Many doctors and physicians prescribe medications wisely. Many people know what they're doing, but certain people cannot take those drugs. For a certain small segment of the specialized among us, they make a mistake. Therefore, by creating a monitoring board to oversee the conduct of physicians and doctors and people dispensing drugs, I think we'll eliminate the suffering of many people in this province.

Many provinces in this great country of Canada have passed laws to create monitoring boards to oversee the dispensing of drugs in their provinces. So I hope after we listen to people debate this bill, on our side and the opposition side, we'll get support for one direction in order to first create awareness and convince the Ministry of Health to adopt the bill and include it in the many different great bills that have been introduced through our mandate.

Statistics show that so many people, for some reason, cannot take the drugs. For some reason too, some physicians and doctors think that it's an easy thing to quiet someone's pain by giving them drugs. The patients become addicted to them and establish terrible health conditions, psychological conditions, because they're very addictive. And then what happens? A tragedy happens: people die.

We don't want to see the suffering. The people who die from these narcotic drugs leave, but their families stay around. They stay with memories, with history, especially when your loved one was a young individual who was trying to make a future for himself or herself. Because of a prescription overdose, they lose their lives, and they leave grief and sadness behind them.

That's why I'm introducing this bill today. I'm hoping that all my colleagues on both sides of the House will give me their support so that we can proceed to third reading, pass the bill, proclaim it and have it become law in the province of Ontario. I think all our guests this morning in the gallery hope to see this bill passed, and many other Ontarians who cannot be with us today want to see it passed, because it's very important.

As I mentioned at the beginning, it's not a political bill. It's not trying to advance my political career or score any points against any party. My point today is to score points for supporting a human tragedy and to save lives.

Our statistics show that so many people in the province of Ontario and so many people across Canada—almost 125,000 people across Canada are addicted to drugs: cocaine, opium, many different narcotics. I also want to tell you that there are so many legal drugs being used on the streets, because so many people receive them legitimately but give them away—by selling them, by giving them to anyone—and other people get addicted to them, without any monitoring. That's why we're losing lives.

By creating a board to monitor the dispensing of those drugs, I think we'd be doing a great job for humanity, a great job for Ontarians, and a great job for the great people of Canada.

I know that on the streets of London and the streets of Toronto, many people get lost and lose their lives, because for many different reasons, they get addicted to something—something they don't want to be attracted to. But as human beings, we are very fragile. We get affected sometimes by emotional things, by a tragedy, by circumstances. Sometimes we lose our job. We divorce. For many different reasons, we are affected psychologically, and we think taking narcotic drugs will help us to control ourselves, to maintain our personality, give us some kind of forgiveness or help us to forget our problems. That's why we get addicted to something that will kill us in the future.

I think by creating a monitoring board, we will help many people. I know many different colleagues are going to speak to this bill, especially my colleague from Etobicoke North, who is a doctor. He knows the importance of prescribing and dispensing drugs. At many times I've gone to him, and I've taken his advice about certain drugs. Because for so many drugs which have been admitted by the federal government and supported by the province and put on a list to be covered by OHIP, we don't understand the explanation of the drugs.

We don't know what it means, because not all of us are doctors or specialists or chemists. We know the chemical structure of some drugs, the side effects of the drugs, but some of them will affect us badly. Some of them will cause much harm to our lives, to our friends, to our loved ones and to our family members.

That's why I'm hoping I will get the support of all members of the House, because it's a very important issue—not just for us but for many great Ontarians and the future of this province.

The Deputy Speaker: Further debate?

Mrs. Elizabeth Witmer (Kitchener—Waterloo): My appreciation goes to the member for London—Fanshawe, who has brought forward Bill 108,

An Act to monitor the prescribing of certain drugs. It's obvious, in listening to him, that he is very passionate. He obviously has been moved to action as a result of visits and conversations that he has had with constituents in his community, and I want to welcome those individuals here today.

I think the role of an MPP is exactly this. Obviously, on a regular basis, we have communications, we listen to the concerns of our constituents, and if we see an opportunity to move an issue forward, to make sure that some action is taken, that awareness is raised, we have that opportunity in private members' hour to do so. This member from London—Fanshawe has done exactly that: He has brought forward this bill.

This bill ostensibly would establish a program for monitoring the prescription of certain drugs in order to promote the appropriate use of the monitored drugs and the reduction of their abuse and misuse.

The bill proposes to create an Ontario prescription monitoring board. It says that the board would include representatives from the CPSO, the RCDSO and the OCP. It would be administered by an administrator, and it would require that prescribers and pharmacists give access of information to the administrator, including medical records that the administrator reasonably requires to achieve the objectives of the program. It would also extend protection to those who act in good faith to disclose information or documents in a manner required by this act.

I would certainly concur with the member: This is a serious issue. I think we've all heard from constituents, in our roles as MPPs, about individuals who unfortunately have lost loved ones as a result of drug use.

I would suggest, and I've had the opportunity to consult with some of the groups that are going to be impacted by this type of legislation, that although this bill is well intended and although there may well be very, very good reason to establish this type of a board, an Ontario prescription monitoring board, it's extremely important that we take the time to do the due diligence and consult with the individuals who are going to be impacted, because as I say, this well could be the solution for reducing the incidence of abuse and misuse of drugs.

However, there has not been consultation with any of these stakeholders or any of the representatives, and I think we need to take a look at how large this problem is and how we can best resolve this problem.

I think as the bill is currently worded, it is probably too broad. Certainly, we need to make sure that when we introduce legislation, we have support and we are capable of actually doing what the bill is proposing to do. We can't simply have another level of bureaucracy and not achieve its objective of reducing abuse and misuse.

I think this bill does speak to a commitment that we need to always have in the window, and that is patient safety, so this bill is certainly on the right track because it is an attempt to make sure that the government takes steps to promote patient safety. We certainly do support safe prescribing, and we need to do everything we can to protect the public. Part of what we obviously need to do is to focus our efforts on establishing electronic medical records for all Ontarians, which currently we don't have.

Certainly, I think the timing of this bill is very appropriate. There's a lot of merit in this bill, and I would hope that as a result of the member coming forward and raising our awareness of this issue, we could bring together the colleges that are being proposed to be representatives, that we could bring forward the Ministry of Health, that we could bring forward and include in this the nurses, because I think nurses have a lot of information.

Perhaps what we need to do is to first set up a working group to develop a consistent protocol and take a look at this issue: How widespread is the issue and how can we most appropriately deal with this issue? Because it is a real issue. I applaud the member for bringing it forward.

We know there are abuses, so certainly this notion of monitoring the prescribing of certain drugs is one that is opportune at the present time. I think we all know of very troubling cases related to inappropriate prescriptions. If you take a look at it, perhaps it makes good common sense to create a central agency that could monitor the prescription of drugs.

So I would highly recommend that we take a further look, because this bill makes a good start, but I think now it's important that whatever we introduce would be well supported by the people in the field, that if an agency were to be set up, it would do the job that it is intended to do, and that is to reduce the abuse and misuse, and of course we need to make sure that the colleges, if they're going to be involved in this, are in a position where they actually can do what is intended here.

This is certainly a worthwhile agency for consideration, but without further consultation and without further examination of some of the details as to how it would be established and what it would actually do, and what type of regulations are going to be necessary to make it function, I think it would be premature to support this moving forward, simply because the stakeholders, the people who are going to be involved in trying to take action to reduce the abuse and misuse, have not been involved in consultation.

But having said that, in talking to those stakeholders, there is an interest on their part to be involved in further consultation. Certainly they think the timing is appropriate, and possibly this is the most appropriate vehicle.

I applaud the member from London—Fanshawe. I appreciate his representation of his constituents. I appreciate that he's brought this issue forward because it is a very serious issue and he has raised awareness. I would hope it would prompt the government to move forward and take a look at the problem and identify how we can best address this particular problem and this particular issue, which is serious, take a look at what other provinces have done and then, if it is determined that this would be the most appropriate vehicle, this particular Ontario prescription monitoring board, move forward with its creation.

So thank you to member, and I appreciate your bringing this forward and raising this for our public attention.

Ms. Cheri DiNovo (Parkdale—High Park): I too commend the member from London—Fanshawe for addressing an important issue and an important problem and welcome the visitors to the gallery.

Certainly as the representative for Parkdale—High Park, I've had a great deal of experience with those with addiction and mental health issues. The two tend to go hand in hand, as we all know. Along with many others in my community, we started a West End Angels program, a drop-in for those with mental health and addiction issues, and work very closely with a wonderful organization in my riding, Parkdale Activity-Recreation Centre that feeds about a thousand people a month, many of those with mental health and addiction issues.

In fact, in response to those in our riding, we set up a round table of caregivers and we looked at the issue of narcotic abuse and use and what we could do to address it. One of the stumbling blocks we initially came over was not so much the monitoring, but the fact that Ontario does not have a drug strategy at all, and this is a huge oversight. The people at home will ring with this when they recognize that the city of Toronto has an excellent drug strategy.

In fact, Susan Shepherd, who helped develop that drug strategy, sits on our board and is looking at developing a Parkdale—High Park drug strategy that we hope we might bring forward to become an Ontario-wide strategy, because we certainly need one.

When it comes to the actual use and monitoring of narcotics and other drugs, I'd like to—because I think this is an important bill and does take a first step towards an issue that needs addressing: that we have both an over-prescription of drugs and an underprescription of drugs problem in this province, and it's not only narcotics. I'm quoting here from a CTV news release—this is earlier this month—which says, "Seniors prescribed antidepressants such as Prozac, Paxil and Zoloft are almost five time times more likely to commit suicide during the first month on the drugs than those given other medication to treat depression, a study suggests.

"The research, conducted in Canada, adds to the controversy already surrounding popular selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors or 'SSRI' drugs."

Here's a quote from Dr. Juurlink, lead author of the study by the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences. He says, "Doctors are way too liberal with these drugs" in prescribing them. So there is another case of an over-prescription of drugs.

John Colacci, who was treated at his hospital, took Avastin, and it cost him $36,000. He said, "I expect more from the Ontario government, not just for me but for every other Ontarian who could encounter this problem."

Wendy Mundell paid $18,000 up front for Avastin last year and was lucky to receive some financial assistance afterwards from a third party benefit package. She asks, "Why doesn't this government agree that my life is worth $18,000?" Again, when we look at an Ontario-wide drug strategy, we should look at who's not getting the drugs they need as well as those who are getting too many drugs and drugs that they don't need.

The first thing I did when I did research for this bill was consult a friend, a constituent and someone I trust in the matter of pharmaceuticals, because he's the director of the pharmacy services at Trillium Health Centre, Dr. Allan Mills. He sent me a very enlightening e-mail about what perhaps needs to go into this bill before we consider passing it.

First of all, he says that in the province of BC, where they have similar legislation, the "program was well-intentioned but was not successful ... as it relied on copies of the prescriptions being sent to the central processing office where they would be entered in the computer due to difficulties with gathering and entering the data. An estimate in 1995"—when they looked at this initially, when they introduced it—"suggested that 20% of the data was lost due to the ineffectiveness of the process.

It wasn't"—and here's the critical point he's making about the BC system—"until the Pharmanet system was introduced that the process finally worked. This system made the triplicate process a little redundant as each prescription entered into a pharmacy computer was logged on a provincial database. This made it easy to track utilization and identify cases of diversion"—drug diversion.

So here's the problem with the act as written. He says:

"[W]e don't have an electronic database for prescriptions, which would be the backbone of such a system. Many have been asking for this for years, but it has never been made a priority" by this government. "Without this infrastructure (which could be used for more than just narcotic diversion"—as I pointed out in the case of the SSRIs—"i.e. identifying medications people are on at home when they come into ER) it would be a false sense of security at best, a waste of time and money at worst.

"Again, the act was well intentioned, but it could also be used as a witch hunt to prevent prescribers from giving those patients who need ... narcotics the medications they require." For example, he says, "(palliative care physicians would be 'picked up by the system' because they would prescribe these agents at a higher-than-normal rate—their patients require the medications...). The other concern would be that artificial barriers must not be put up that would prevent patients from getting their prescriptions filled.

Since many pharmacies are worried about security of the agents and robberies in some places, it can be hard enough to get straight narcotics filled at a neighbourhood pharmacy—can you imagine if they started to be identified as 'high dispensers' and had to justify their dispensing? There has to be a balance between access and diversion risk. And this has to include participation"—which really echoes some of what we heard from the member for Kitchener—Waterloo—"from the Ontario College of Pharmacists, Ontario College of Dental Surgeons and the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons.

It is really important that this be considered as a means to prevent diversion" but "not to limit practice."

I can also imagine that in areas where there is a high concentration of seniors, for example, or a high concentration of the disabled, that particular pharmacy might be targeted. But I think the critical point he's making, other than that, is that without the database, this is pretty well a bill without teeth.

Again, I hearken back to the member from Kitchener—Waterloo, who says that what's really needed here is consultation, because, trust me, if I can find this out in a couple of hours of research between about 1 o'clock and 3 o'clock this morning, I'm sure, if we get the stakeholders around the table, we'll get a great deal more input on how to put teeth into this legislation and actually make it what it should be and what I think the member from London—Fanshawe and all the stakeholders want it to be.

I am not arguing against this being a good first step; I'm concerned that it not just be a first step but that it go the whole distance.

I always love talking about health care, because it gives me a chance to talk about, of course, our health care system and, interestingly enough, bring forward what should be in place, not only in the province of Ontario but across this country of ours, and that is a pharmacare strategy. One of the aspects of Canada that makes us so Canadian and so proud to be Canadian is our medicare system, and that medicare system is under threat here provincially and of course nationally as well.

One of the ways in which it is under threat is—the example I gave you of the folks who cannot afford to pay for cancer drugs and who need those cancer drugs. So already we have a two-tier system: one for those who can afford the drugs and one for those who cannot afford the drugs. This is pretty clear across the board in a lot of different areas. For people with children with autism, they know this directly—again, where there's not funding available.

One doesn't need to do much research to discover some of the solutions to that problem. The Canadian Health Coalition and the Ontario Health Coalition have both done work on this, and I'd like to just read what their recommendations are for a pharmacare system:

"

(1) Universal public drug insurance:

"—expand first-dollar coverage according to the principles of the Canada Health Act: no user fees, co-payments or premiums for insured first-line therapeutic treatments;

"—fully fund the insurance plan through the public sector. Governments self-insure to control costs. No partnerships with the private sector; and

"—options"—as Roy Romanow called for—"for 'catastrophic' drug coverage (covering costs that exceed high thresholds)...." We think of those who suffer with AIDS and how much it costs them for prescription drugs. Only the wealthy can afford them.

"

(2) National formulary for essential drugs:

"—insure first-line therapies on a national formulary based on evidence of efficacy; and

"—use nationally integrated cost-management methods, including bulk purchasing, cost-volume price negotiations, and reference-based pricing." These are things that we could do to bring the costs way down.

"

(3) Drug regulation that puts safety and efficacy first"—and behind this, of course, we're also talking about that database that we need, and it really is quite outrageous that we don't have it. Imagine that you are in a coma or you're unconscious or you're taken into the emergency ward and nobody knows what drugs you're on. This should be computerized today—yesterday. Without that, a monitoring system doesn't make a lot of sense.

"

(4) Reform of the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board." We also need that.

I don't have a lot of time, so I'm just going to read the main points: accountable and transparent decision-making; patent reform; regulation of drug promotion and marketing; a national prescribing service; establish a public drug information system, which is what this bill wants to take one small step toward; and regulation for ethical conduct in clinical trials and research.

I really highly recommend their report, which is many, many pages in length and has been signed on to by a broad swath of stakeholders in the health community—because we get that we do not have a true medicare system without a pharmacare system as well.

I did promise the Ontario Health Coalition, so I will—because it is Nursing Week, and we've heard it heralded in this House—make mention of another attempt to really chip away at our medicare system in Ontario, and that is this move to private-public hospitals. They say, in no uncertain terms—300 nurses signed on to this: "Hospitals are not commodities to be bought and sold on the market as revenue streams to make money for investors. They are valued public institutions upon which our communities rely for life-enhancing and life-prolonging care."

They are absolutely and steadfastly against the development of these hospitals, which are already running into huge cost overruns before they're even built. I'm thinking of Brampton and others that we've heard about many times in this House.

With just a few minutes remaining, I would say that one of the major concerns that has come out from our own roundtable in Parkdale—High Park that we need to address right away for those who suffer from drug addiction issues is more rehabilitation beds. We need more treatment options. We are turning people away by the thousands to die on the streets of our city because of lack of housing, lack of treatment, ODSP that doesn't pay for them to eat and pay their rent. This is what we need, and this is the answer to those who are out there suffering from addiction issues right now. It's clear that this is not going to help that.

Having said that, are we supportive? We're supportive of this as a baby step. We would love, like the member from Kitchener—Waterloo, to see stakeholders around a table discussing this, because as I say, if this much comes out of an evening's work of research from the director of pharmacy services at Trillium hospital, then surely a great deal more needs to go into this bill in terms of regulations, in terms of teeth, in terms of really making it what it needs to be. So we need that right away, as well as transparency and openness.

Even further than that, we need a pharmacare plan that actually pays for the drugs that those who have illness need and that helps to introduce a database system and an electronic monitoring system so that lives are saved. That's what I think we all want as MPPs in this House. We all look out upon our ridings. There's not one riding represented in this Parliament where we have not seen first-hand the devastation of addiction issues, the devastation of the lack of money in our health care system, the devastation of the lack of treatment beds.

I have folks coming to me all the time. They want treatment; they want rehabilitation. They cannot find it. It's only there for the rich. It is not there for the poor and it's not even there for the middle class, because it's profoundly expensive. We need treatment options; we need beds for those suffering with addictions. We need all the stakeholders, all the caregivers, to sit around a table, just like we're doing in Parkdale—High Park, and come up with real solutions. We need to put teeth into this baby step of a bill.

We need to have a database that monitors the prescribing of drugs and that looks at who gets what so that when that person comes into the emergency room and is unconscious, we know what they're on, we know what perhaps they're overdosing on, so we're not overprescribing yet again when they get into the hospital or prescribing the wrong medication when they get into the hospital.

It has been a pleasure to speak on this. We've all of us lost loved ones. My prayers and my thoughts go out to the family and those in the gallery. Rest assured that I and the New Democratic Party will do everything we can to make a difference in this province for you.

Mr. Lou Rinaldi (Northumberland): It's a pleasure to speak in conjunction with my good friend from London—Fanshawe, my seatmate. I want to congratulate him for taking a leadership role on this particular issue.

I'm wont to talk about issues by example, because I think that's one of the ways I can really understand issues or have a better comprehension. Let me just say that when it comes to drugs and prescription drugs and what we take in our lives, I'm not an expert, but I want to talk about some experiences.

Less than a year ago I had the misfortune of losing my father. He was quite ill for quite a while. I had the opportunity to spend the last month with him on a daily basis and I knew the number of drugs that he took. I took him to the doctor—and this is no fault of the medical profession by any means, because I think those folks in the medical profession really try to do the best they can. In a couple of instances we'd go to a specialist or a doctor who said, "You've got to stop taking that drug because this is why this is happening to you," and they'd give him something else. He wasn't well, so a couple of weeks later I'd take him somewhere else, because he couldn't drive anymore.

In a period of only a month—here's somebody who was 84 years old when he passed away, but for the last couple of years he was having a really difficult time. Sad to say, I actually only spent maybe six weeks with him every day, but he'd been doing this for the last couple of years. Like I say, the profession was very kind to him, they were very good, but he had some challenges with some drugs and he was bouncing back and forth. That really gives you some sense—I touch wood that I'm not dependent on any particular drug today and hopefully can stay that way.

But let me tell you of another story about a neighbour of mine where I live in Brighton. She's an elderly lady. About 10 years ago—and she was fairly healthy all her life, but over the course of her life, and I don't know the whole history, she'd been prescribed different drugs for different symptoms. Of course, she didn't know any better; she kept on taking these drugs. It came to a point where one day they had to rush her to the hospital. The prognosis wasn't very good. Thank God one of the doctors in the emergency room, after trying to figure out what the problem was—she was very ill. As a matter of fact, they told her husband that she might not come home.

One of the things they normally do in the hospital when you go into emergency is they check what kind of drugs you take. She had quite an array of drugs that she was taking; some were over the counter because when she got a headache she took this and so forth; some were prescribed. The doctor in the emergency room decided to take all the drugs away: "Let's see what happens. I'm sure it's more complicated, but I'm trying to make it as simple as I can." She suffered dearly for a couple of days, maybe a week, with no drugs—some withdrawals.

I'm not sure of the age of this person—this happened about 10 years ago—but she's probably in her mid-80s. I saw her a couple of weeks ago and she's doing great. All she takes now when she gets a really bad headache sometimes is an aspirin. But she knows that she can only take it once or twice and then she doesn't take it anymore.

I'm not a chemist; I'm not a doctor. I don't know what those drugs do, but these are real-life experiences that I was able to be associated with, and I know the challenges that those people went through. Whether this bill fixes the problem, I don't know for sure, but any little thing we can do to alleviate those problems we might face I think we need to do in this House. So I will be supporting this bill. If it goes to committee and if it could be made better, all the power to it. Along with my colleagues from all sides of the House, I hope we can move forward and make life better for everybody in Ontario.

Ms. Laurie Scott (Haliburton—Victoria—Brock): I'm pleased to have the opportunity to speak to Bill 108, the Prescription Monitoring Act, 2007 , brought forward by my colleague from London—Fanshawe. He spoke quite passionately about the need for more awareness when he introduced the bill. It's nice to have private members' time on Thursday mornings so that we can have some non-partisan discussions and issues, and have more public debate and more awareness of situations out there, like prescription monitoring for certain drugs.

I want to thank the families who are in the gallery and who've been touched by the tragedy of losing someone to a prescription narcotic overdose. I want to have them stand and acknowledge that they're here today.

Applause.

Ms. Scott: They have been tireless in trying to bring this problem to the attention of legislators, to get the rules changed and to talk with all the stakeholders.

For some of you who don't know—I guess some in the gallery know—I was a nurse for 20 years before I had the opportunity to be elected as the member for Haliburton—Victoria—Brock—

Mr. Jeff Leal (Peterborough): And an excellent nurse too.

Ms. Scott: Thank you to the member from Peterborough for the compliment.

You do see things first-hand as a nurse—problems—and we say, "What can we do to make this better? This system is not right. We have to be able to protect people in a better way."

The articles that were in the Star—I'm going to mention one from the Toronto Star from April 24 and part of one from April 25. They describe—I know the family members are present in the gallery—the situation that occurred in the family, how they knew there was something wrong in the system, and how they couldn't get access to correct it and rectify it so that other families didn't go through it. It's a very tragic story—a young man who was initially treated for kidney stones and then started taking medication. It's described here in the Toronto Star.

It has pharmacy records that show he was taking a plethora of pills—Valium, Oxycocet, Endocet, Dilaudid, anti-depressants and even Ritalin—all prescribed by a doctor. More than 10,000 pills over 14 months—it's in the article—were prescribed.

So I think we need to highlight the seriousness and how things can just get out of hand. This young man went in for kidney stones and was over-prescribed narcotic medications. They're not just habit-forming; they're highly addictive. As I talk to the families and how there's not enough awareness of how highly addictive these medications can be—just the information they're given isn't correct. They aren't aware. They love their family members, and their family members aren't aware that this is highly addictive.

And once they get on them, once they realize that an addiction has formed, there aren't enough resources, clinics or help. Through just the purpose of going in for medications for kidney stones and how that evolved, that young man ended up losing his life. That should not have happened; it did happen. His family has worked tirelessly to bring this issue forward.

We all collectively—there have been many, many stakeholders mentioned here today that are willing: the Ontario Medical Association, the College of Pharmacists, physicians and surgeons, dental surgeons and nurses—need to get in the loop, as we say; we all need to be on the same page. We should hear from the families of these victims of instances that have not happened.

When you think that this young man has been taken from us, and the other family members who were lost because of over-prescription—there's the College of Physicians and Surgeons; I know they're there, and I know that situation specifically has been dealt with, but what else is going on that we don't know about?

Patients who go in for symptoms don't have the knowledge of medications or what they're being prescribed for, so we have to do a better job of informing the families, the patients, of what these medications are composed of, how highly addictive—not just habit-forming; sometimes the words "habit-forming," I'm told, are in there, but they are highly addictive. Unless we make them aware—there is certainly, I know, in the hospitals, short-time use of some narcotics, but they're monitored in the system, and it's for short-term, it's for pain relief until they can get through the worst of the healing.

When physicians can over-prescribe to the extent that they do, I think it speaks to the fact that we have to have better checks in the system. It was mentioned earlier about eHealth, electronic medical records. That's been in the papers a lot. But what we're trying to establish here is communication between doctors and pharmacies of patient records. The privacy issue, certainly, we acknowledge and are working with. But in the hospital setting, when I was in emergency—when they come in, and 25% of the reason they come in is related to medications, that's a red flag for all of us.

I don't think any levels of government have moved quickly enough to establish the information sharing that is needed to protect patients who come in. That's big hole in our system that we need to address.

I want to thank the member from London—Fanshawe for bringing this forward, for this debate that we're having this morning. The families—I know it's very hard for you to come here and to relive some experiences, but I just want to say thank you very much for coming and for your tireless efforts. Thank you.

Mr. Shafiq Qaadri (Etobicoke North): At the outset, I would first of all like to declare my complete support of this particular bill brought by the honourable member from London—Fanshawe, Dr. Khalil Ramal.

I know that our member from London—Fanshawe has been passionate on a number of fronts, not only in representing the interests of his community, his own riding, but also more broadly: Canada's diverse communities, and now, today, specifically with individuals who are here represented by people in the gallery today who have had such negative and life-changing experiences with these particular groups of medications that we're speaking about.

I'll speak here in a number of different capacities: as the MPP for Etobicoke North; as you'll know, I'm the parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Health Promotion; and of course as a physician. In those various capacities all wrapped into one, I think that more scrutiny, more monitoring, more measurement of outcomes in any realm of scientific endeavour, whether it's medicine or other realms, is certainly going to serve the interests of the province of Ontario and our people.

For example, the Hippocratic oath, which I remember being administered some 20 years ago at the University of Toronto—one of its first tenets is the idea of "above all else, do no harm," or in Latin, "primum non nocere."

I think the honourable member from London—Fanshawe very rightly brings this to our attention, that when individuals, in whatever pain situation it may be—whether it's, for example, seeking treatment for an acute situation like kidney stones, or renal colic as we say, or for deeper and more long-lasting and possibly terminal illnesses, whether it's post-surgical pain or cancer pain or traumatic pain from, say, car accidents, motor vehicle accidents, and so on—when we as physicians are entrusted with the care of our patients, for hopefully restoring some semblance of order and well-being to mind, body and spirit, if in that situation the physician over-prescribes, whether it's narcotic medications or a whole host of other medications, of course the medical interest, the medical profession and the medical aspiration are not being fulfilled.

So I wholeheartedly support this idea of a prescription monitoring board.

At the same time, I would like to say, hopefully for the benefit of the members of this chamber, that there are a number of individuals—for example, we have four million Canadians who have arthritis and 20,000 individuals who are diagnosed on an annual basis with lung cancer, and there's a huge number of other pain situations—acute and chronic pain, acute on chronic pain and so on; there's a great deal of vocabulary attached to this. In those particular cases, some of these narcotic-level medications, hopefully used in a judicious manner, hopefully not over-prescribed, are in fact necessary.

So I really have to bring this idea of balance to this particular discussion. Having said that, what I think the creation of a drug monitoring and prescription monitoring board, as brought forward by my colleague from London—Fanshawe, stipulates is that we must have more discussion on these issues; we must have continuing medical education, or CME, as we would say to physicians and other practitioners.

Our own Ministry of Health, by the way, has instituted what we call a MedsCheck, which is performed by pharmacists for their patients—it's now a billable service—in which they will actually analyze the prescriptions that patients are taking and hopefully use that as an alert to the various bodies, including physicians themselves, for potential conflicts, drug interactions, side effects, undermanagement as well or possibly over-prescription of these narcotics.

Because of course, when we have public trust, not only as legislators but also as physicians, it's very important and imperative that we prescribe judiciously and appropriately. The medical teaching is: what is necessary, but kind of on the minimal side—not to over-prescribe and then unfortunately addict patients to these very powerful, important and useful but potentially dangerous and, unfortunately, potentially lethal medications.

I would simply say that our perspective is certainly: Above all else, do no harm—primum non nocere—the medical motto. I would wholeheartedly support my honourable colleague Dr. Ramal, from London—Fanshawe, on his bill for a prescription monitoring board. It will bring scrutiny, it will measure outcomes and I think it will definitely serve the interests not only of individuals comprising the riding of London—Fanshawe but the people of Ontario broadly.

Mr. Tony Ruprecht (Davenport): First, let me congratulate the member from London—Fanshawe for this bill.

Briefly, why do we need this Prescription Monitoring Act? We know, for instance, that the prescribing of narcotics has increased significantly over the last few years. In 2003, 101 Ontarians died with narcotic drugs in their system. This was a tenfold increase over the past decade. Also in 2003, 2.8 million psychotropic drugs were dispensed, mostly in Ontario. That's the equivalent of two pills for every man, woman and child.

On April 25, the Toronto Star printed an

article about a prominent Toronto psychiatrist who had been found guilty of professional misconduct for prescribing excessive amounts of narcotics to 23 patients. Over a 14-month period, this doctor prescribed one patient over 10,000 pills. Of course, that patient died of an overdose.

Let me give you an example that I myself have experienced in the riding I formerly represented. I was driving by the methadone clinic and saw a number of people standing in front of the entrance of this methadone clinic. I was wondering what they were hanging around for. What were they doing there? By further inquiry, I found out that some people who were standing in front of this clinic were actually buying and selling methadone. By further inquiry, I found out that if a patient went in and really made emotional requests to the doctor or to the dispensing agent, they could indeed get a bit more methadone that later could be sold on the street.

This bill is very necessary. Can this bill pass quickly? Of course it was said earlier that we need to have consultation with the stakeholders. Yes, that's very important, but remember this: The province of Manitoba passed Bill 107, and Mr. Ramal's bill is patterned after the Nova Scotia bill.

"The purpose of the bill is to establish a program for monitoring the prescription of certain drugs, to be designated by regulation of the Lieutenant Governor in Council, in order to promote the appropriate use of the monitored drugs and the reduction of their abuse and misuse. The bill proposes the creation of the Ontario Prescription Monitoring Board composed of directors that include representatives of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, the Royal College of Dental Surgeons of Ontario and the Ontario College of Pharmacists, as well as persons appointed by the Lieutenant Governor in Council who are not members of these licensing authorities."

Just one more item: I think I would be remiss if I didn't mention that at present there is a shift in focus in terms of the health care system. In the past—and it might even be in the present—we were looking at patients who were sick, and the move is away from sick care to prevention. I want to give the McGuinty government full credit for establishing for the first time in the history of this province, and indeed in the history of Canada, a minister who is responsible for the promotion of health. That is a very significant issue.

Finally, the member from Parkdale—High Park mentioned earlier that, yes, there are social determinants of health that we must look at. We are making some steps in the right direction to ensure that some of these social determinants of health, which do cause illness, are being looked after at least to some degree. We need more housing, we need more education, and we need more nutrition and supplement programs. In short, we are going in the right direction, but we need more time.

Congratulations to the member and congratulations to the McGuinty government.

The Deputy Speaker: Mr. Ramal, you have up to two minutes to respond.

Mr. Ramal: First, I want to thank the member for Kitchener—Waterloo, who was the Minister of Health at one time; the member for Haliburton—Victoria—Brock, who has been a nurse for many years; the member for Etobicoke North, Dr. Qaadri, who is also a physician; and also the member for Parkdale—High Park, the member for Northumberland—my seatmate—the member for Davenport and all the people who are with us in the gallery.

I know it's a very important issue. I'm not going to take it lightly. Hopefully it will go for a third round. Also, we have to do a lot of work to strengthen the bill by consulting the stakeholders across Ontario: the doctors, the physicians, the nurses and the pharmacists. It's very important to bring all the people on board to create a strong bill that is able to serve the people of this province.

The member from Parkdale—High Park was talking a little bit about the bill, but she talked about different issues. Anyway, I want to thank her for in essence supporting the bill, and also all the members who spoke in support and brought very important elements to the discussion.

As you know, I'm not a physician, I'm not a pharmacist, I'm not a chemist, but I've heard a lot of stories from the media, from talking to people about the importance of creating such a board to monitor the dispensing of pills and narcotic drugs that can harm a lot of people. So we are here in this place to protect the people of Ontario and create rules and laws and regulations to make sure that all the people live in peace and harmony and are safe.

As we mentioned, not all of us are experts about drugs, not all of us know exactly how we can use them. A lot of people misuse those drugs, and by misusing them, it affects a lot of lives. That's why I'm introducing this bill today and I'm looking forward to seeing support from both sides of the House.

LINCOLN ALEXANDER DAY ACT, 2007 /

LOI DE 2007 SUR LE JOUR

DE LINCOLN ALEXANDER

Ms. Mossop moved second reading of the following bill:

Bill 220,

An Act to proclaim Lincoln Alexander Day / Projet de loi 220, Loi proclamant le Jour de Lincoln Alexander.

The Deputy Speaker (Mr. Bruce Crozier): Pursuant to standing order 96, Ms. Mossop, you have up to 10 minutes. The floor is yours.

Ms. Jennifer F. Mossop (Stoney Creek): It was his voice that first engaged me and captured me: so varied, so deep and so rich, like the man himself. So today I move a bill to proclaim the third Wednesday in February in each year Lincoln Alexander Day in Ontario schools.

February is Black History Month, the third week in February is Heritage Week in Ontario and the third Monday in February is Heritage Day across Canada. Who among us embodies black history and our heritage as a province and as a country, growing towards tolerance and inclusion, more than our own oh, so accomplished, very charismatic and most generous Lincoln MacCauley Alexander?

I'm going to read out his many accomplishments for you. This could take a minute or two, and then I will get into the story of how we got to today.

Lincoln Alexander is a former Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, 1985-91. He's the chair of both the Raptors Foundation and the Ontario Heritage Trust. He was named the greatest Hamiltonian of all time in June 2006, in a contest sponsored by the Hamilton Spectator newspaper. Mr. Alexander is a former federal Minister of Labour, a former chairman of the then Ontario Workers' Compensation Board and the former chair of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation. He served as an MP for 11 years for the riding of Hamilton West.

Lincoln Alexander is a Companion of the Order of Canada, a member of the Order of Ontario, he received his B.A. from McMaster University and his L.L.B. from York University's Osgoode Hall. Lincoln Alexander is the recipient of six honorary Doctor of Law degrees and one honorary Doctor of Sacred Letters degree. He is a member on the boards of the University of Guelph, Doctors Hospital, the Shaw Festival, the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair, chamberWorks ensemble of Hamilton, and he acts as a consultant to the board of George Weston Ltd. and is a member of the Quebecor Ontario advisory board.

The Lincoln M. Alexander Parkway, fondly known as the "Linc" in Hamilton, is named after him. He is an honorary colonel in the RCAF, an honorary commissioner of the OPP and honorary chief of the Toronto Fire Services. He is the honorary chief of police—Toronto, York Regional Police and Hamilton Police Service—and he also serves as patron or honorary officer of several charitable organizations.

The genesis of this bill came when the Ontario Heritage Trust contacted me about Linc's 85th birthday, which is going to be celebrated next Thursday in an enormous bash, and they said, "Is there any way we could maybe have that day proclaimed as Lincoln Alexander Day in Ontario?" That led me to think, what better national holiday could we have in Canada than Lincoln Alexander Day in February, which is Black History Month, and in the middle of Heritage Week?

But, as all of you know in this chamber, getting things like that accomplished can be timely, and we didn't have a lot of time. We wanted something ready for this special occasion. I started to think about all that Linc was about, all that he had achieved and how he had gotten there, and his commitment and dedication, especially to education and to people.

That's when I decided, maybe a first step to a national holiday could happen right here in this Legislature among all of us—maybe a little subversive, but we'll start with a first step towards a national holiday right here by declaring the third Wednesday in February to be Lincoln Alexander Day in Ontario schools. So that's how we got to where we are now.

The reason why schools—and I have to pick up this book that he wrote, his autobiography. It's called Go to School, You're a Little Black Boy: The Honourable Lincoln M. Alexander: A Memoir. On the back of this book, Linc writes: "Throughout my life I have believed thoroughly in the power of education, and that belief is the grand gift that my mother, Mae Rose, gave me. The title of this book, the quote, 'Go to school, you're a little black boy,' is hers, and I have used it to honour her insight and wisdom. Those words, her words, have been at the core of what I have accomplished in this life.

She was a mere maid, but her knowledge and foresight transcended her station in life; she knew that accepting defeat was easy, but success was possible, and education was the vehicle to take you there. She was right, and it has." It has, indeed.

He grew up in a very white Canada in the Depression era, the son of a maid and a railroad porter. Blacks at that time were uncommon, and often unwelcome. In his book, he talks about the many times that he became angry, and he had many reasons to be angry—the injustices, the ugliness that he met in his fellow human beings in this world. One occasion was when he had already served in the military. He had been through law school—an excellent student. He landed a job interview. It was over the phone, and the interview went extremely well.

He got to the end of the interview, and he asked the gentleman on the other end of the phone, "Would it make any difference to you if I was black?" There was a long pause. He did get a first-hand, one-on-one interview for that job, but in fact he did not get the job, and he didn't get it because he was black. He got angry—not the only time in his life he would be angry and face such injustice and such ugliness—but he never got mired in the anger. He never let the futility of anger overtake him and defeat him. He always moved beyond it. He always looked deep inside people and found something good.

In return, we would have the gift of that instant friendship that Linc offers. When he turns his gaze on you, you have his full attention. It is an amazing gift. It's like the sun beaming down on you, and that deep, rich voice reaches out to you, engages you and talks to you, not about trivial things. He doesn't chat about the weather; he gets right to the crux of the issue.

In government, we have many people who come to us. You're sort of like a walking dollar sign, in fact. You spend all your time with people coming to you wanting money, whether it's a group or an organization—all needy, all worthy. I got to know Linc better as the chair of the Ontario Heritage Trust, and while everybody else brought briefing notes and PowerPoint presentations and would spend half an hour on the

preamble, he just walked in the room and said, "I need money. I want money for my heritage trust." He just got straight to the point. Why waste time? We all knew why he was there, and you know what? That's what made him a success. He didn't waste any time on trivialities. He always got to the point, always gets to the point, and always sticks to what is the most important in life.

So I was taken by the fact that he never allowed anger to overtake him. It's something that many of us do in life. Anger is often justified, but if it's not used as a catalyst to move beyond and to move to better things, then it can destroy us, destroy those who are angry.

When I was preparing my bill—I introduced it last week—I quickly realized, because I started having people come up to me and talk to me about this bill and the response to it, that what we would be doing this morning in private members' time was, in fact, not having a debate about my bill. My bill is an opportunity for each and every one of us to tell our favourite Linc stories, and there are many of them.

I had the opportunity to meet with Colin Millar, a former chief of police of Hamilton, the other evening. Colin Millar's father was Lincoln Alexander's law partner—one of those genuinely sincere people back in a time when blacks were not welcome—who welcomed him with open arms, and, as Linc says in his book, loved black, thought black was beautiful. Colin was telling me about the great relationship he has and the great affection he has for Lincoln Alexander. He told me one quick story, which I will try to relay here, and that is that Linc never drove. He never got his licence, he never learned how to drive.

He did everything else in life. He went on to rub elbows with royalty, but I suppose because he was so busy doing other great things, he never learned how to drive. But now he is 85, and to conserve that good energy for good purposes, he uses one of these motorized scooters. So now, a man who has never driven in his life is scooting around Hamilton in one of these motorized scooters. Colin, being the police officer that he is by trade, says, "This man knows nothing about the rules of the road. He doesn't know what an advance green is. He goes scooting out into the road.

People start honking, and Linc just throws up his hand and waves because he thinks they're honking because they know it's him." And you know what? They do know it's him. Everybody knows Linc in Hamilton. People all across Canada know him, adore him, love him and are so honoured to be able to count him among their countrymen and among their friends.

There's so much for the students of Ontario to learn about not just black history, not just heritage, but about life and living a successful life and learning how to overcome life's toughest challenges and how to be one thing that's actually really hard to be in life sometimes: happy. I've seen Linc saddened, but he's never been truly unhappy. He's a happy man, and he is because he gives so much.

Ms. Cheri DiNovo (Parkdale—High Park): On a point of order, Mr. Speaker: I just want to introduce a class that's here from Humbercrest French immersion. We're delighted to have them here from my riding of Parkdale—High Park.

The Deputy Speaker: Further debate?

Mr. Tim Hudak (Erie—Lincoln): I'm pleased to rise as part of the debate on Bill 220, which recognizes the contributions of Lincoln Alexander by declaring Lincoln Alexander Day throughout public schools, not only in Hamilton and Niagara, where his name is well-known and he's made a tremendous impact, but across the province of Ontario, where similarly Lincoln Alexander has had a tremendous impact, and continues to do so, and is an inspiration for young people across this province. So I congratulate my colleague Ms. Mossop, my neighbour from the Stoney Creek riding, for bringing this forward today.

It's something that can have a lasting impact on young people across the province of Ontario, and it's a chance for all of us who have interacted with Lincoln Alexander over the years to celebrate this incredible man.

As my colleague Ms. Mossop indicated, we all have our Linc stories to tell. I had a chance to work very closely with His Honour when I was the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Recreation in 2001-02. Of course, Lincoln Alexander was the chair of the Ontario Heritage Trust, and he continues in that capacity today. And he was persuasive: You didn't say no to Lincoln Alexander. As Ms. Mossop indicated, you have all kinds of good projects that come forward on a regular basis, but whether it was with his eyes, his tone, his confidence or his passion for preserving our heritage, you just couldn't say no to Linc.

We were pleased to work together in investing more funds in the Ontario Heritage Trust to help to rebuild some of the institutions that had not been in the shape that many of us would like to see them, and I'm pleased to see that further investments have continued in that regard.

It was a lot of fun doing those announcements with Linc, who has an extraordinary stature both physically and in his presence—incredible charisma—but also his infectious humour. It's absolutely impressive how he, in a few short words, will win over any crowd.

Mr. Jim Wilson (Simcoe—Grey): Nice guy.

Mr. Hudak: My colleague from Simcoe—Grey says, "Nice guy." No doubt about it: a true gentleman in the classic sense of the word.

Not too long ago, actually, I was down—my colleague the Minister of Tourism, Mr. Bradley, was there, and Mr. Craitor from Niagara Falls as well—celebrating the Ontario Heritage Trust plaque for the Fenian raids. We all remember the Fenian—well, we don't remember the Fenian raids per se; we've read about the Fenian raids.

Mr. Wilson: You probably do.

Mr. Hudak: He says that I probably do. At any rate, we had lined up the redcoats and the Fenians. The Fenians were mostly American residents or citizens who had dressed up in the Fenian costume of the day and had come across the border. They probably had never met Lincoln Alexander and, because they're from across the border, may not have heard of Lincoln Alexander's contributions, eloquently described by my colleague Ms. Mossop a few moments ago. But when Linc took the stage, he charmed those Fenians. The Fenians, because they were in costume and in their roles, were a rowdy bunch.

You don't want to mess with the 19th century Fenians. Their legend for creating havoc is well-known. But Linc, with that Lincoln Alexander charm, won them over immediately, and they joined in raucous applause as we commemorated this very important event.

As well, not too long ago, that same band of Niagarans—Mr. Craitor, Mr. Bradley and I—were together to celebrate the Niagara Parks Commission, begun by one of Ontario's greatest Premiers, Oliver Mowat, over a century ago. And Linc there continued to do excellent work promoting our heritage at that spot.

Lincoln Alexander is absolutely inspiring—that great Canadian immigrant story that we all love to celebrate. He had come over, as Ms. Mossop indicated, from the West Indies as a child. He faced enormous obstacles at the time, incredibly bearing through it; and a list of accomplishments that made him very worthy of winning in 2006 the Greatest Hamiltonian of all time in the Hamilton Spectator contest—Lincoln Alexander prevailing.

In fact, some pretty tough competition: runners up Boris Brott, Arthur Weisz, Thomas McQuesten—Lincoln Alexander, of course, the victor. In politics we know Ellen Fairclough, Sheila Copps, her father Mayor Vic Copps, John Munro among others. So some pretty heavy competition; Lincoln Alexander, of course, prevailed.

I think of the fellow all the time when I get to take that Lincoln Alexander expressway when moving around Stoney Creek and navigating through that part of Hamilton toward the 403; appropriately named after the former Lieutenant Governor, that new highway in the area.

We also, Mr. Speaker, had a recent contest on my website—I don't know if you joined in. We called it the Great Dominion Dustup. We pitted 64 great Canadian politicians from Confederation to modern times and had people vote online as to who their most inspiring Canadian politician was. Lincoln Alexander squared off against C.D. Howe. C.D. Howe had a major impact after the war in Canada; a member of Mackenzie King's government. The C.D. Howe Institute, of course, is named after him. Lincoln Alexander trounced C.D. Howe in that first round. He then ran up against Lester Pearson in the second round.

Pearson, of course, made it all the way to the final in our contest before being defeated, believe it or not, by Louis Riel. But Linc held his own against Lester Pearson, an accomplishment in itself as well.

My colleague Laurie Scott, the member for Haliburton—Victoria—Brock, just shared with me that Lincoln Alexander was good friends with her dad, Bill Scott, the long-time MP for the area. Laurie Scott remembers Lincoln Alexander as her Santa Claus. Little Laurie Scott used to sit on Lincoln Alexander's lap at the Christmas parties where Linc played a jolly Saint Nick. Hopefully Laurie did get the gifts that she desired at that time as a girl in celebrating Christmas—a special memory, no doubt, for my colleague from Haliburton—Victoria—Brock.

His Honour Mr. Alexander's accomplishments are legion, not only as Lieutenant Governor but as a former cabinet minister in the Joe Clark government, a four-time MP for the Hamilton area, and all kinds of boards, universities and the health care sector he was involved with. I want to say I'm very pleased Lincoln Alexander plays an important role in the charity I also care very much about. He helps with scholarships given to children from low-income families whose parents want to send them to independent or faith-based schools. That's not always affordable for a lot of families across the province of Ontario.

Linc is always there to help celebrate these families whose children have worked hard to enjoy those scholarships.

I'm very pleased to rise in the House today in strong support of Lincoln Alexander Day in our schools. I again congratulate my colleague from Stoney Creek. It's a pleasure to be part of the debate this morning.

Ms. DiNovo: It's a pleasure to rise and speak to the member for Stoney Creek's bill to declare Lincoln Alexander Day. This is, of course, exciting, and one of the exciting aspects of it is that it is non-partisan. This man was a Progressive Conservative, he was a cabinet member and he was known for, of course, among other things—I have a wonderful picture of him seen in a screen shot from CBC speaking to the press about the fuddle-duddle incident during the Trudeau era, and I was wondering what he would have to say about the Flick Off campaign if he were here today.

It's a wonderful and very non-partisan moment when we're all thrilled to support celebrating an incredible Ontarian. I always wonder as I walk into this place—and if people who are watching this are wondering who Lincoln Alexander was, he was the first black Lieutenant Governor of this province. If you walk down the halls of this Legislature, you'll see his portrait there, and it is the only face of colour represented on all of the walls. That's both a great triumph for him and also, in a sense, somewhat of a tragedy that that's the only face of colour represented.

There are portraits all over the walls of this place. They're all of men, they're all of white men except for him and the Queen. Again, I think the fitting homage to this great man is really to work more towards inclusion—inclusion in the political world, inclusion of all sorts.

I wanted to recount a little story, because I know we have schoolchildren here from my own riding, about being a schoolchild about their age. A photographer came by our schoolyard. I was very fair, and my best friend at that time was the only African Canadian girl in our school, Marva Jackson. We played together and the photographer snapped a photo of us, and we became the poster children for Brotherhood Week of the Canadian Council of Christians and Jews. We got to have lunch with the then mayor, Nathan Phillips.

But what was very strange about that whole experience was that I had never noticed anything particularly different about Marva before that experience. We were just friends. I noticed that all the other girls and all the other boys looked different from me, so I didn't understand what all the fuss was about. It would be wonderful to have that degree of naïveté again, to have that degree of innocence again, that degree of inclusion that many of us experienced when we were children and yet somehow lose as we grow older.

Four hundred years ago was the date of the first African to arrive on the shores of Canada and to become a Canadian. Mathieu Da Costa arrived as a slave. We did have slavery in this country, and we had slavery for quite a long time after that first arrival. In fact, in 1793 the Abolition Act was passed in Upper Canada, now known as Ontario. It was the first act of its kind to declare freedom for slaves in all of the British Empire. So we can be proud of that as Canadians and as Ontarians, but we can be a little saddened by the fact that though we had the law on our side and have had the law on our side for some time, the impact of that law isn't what we would hope it would be.

I was looking at Black History Canada—and I commend Ms. Mossop, who introduced this day during Black History Month. One of the first paragraphs on the website says, "While Canada did not have legal segregation, there were always 'understandings' about"—and they're talking about most of the last century and some of this—"which neighbourhoods black people could live in, or where they could worship. Most professional organizations"—how high they could rise in those organizations, who would and "would not hire them."

We also have to, in commending Lincoln Alexander, look to the future and how we can never have that happen again and educate our children.

I also did a little bit of research and found some wonderful words—I'm going to read some of them—from a study that was commissioned by this Ontario Legislature back a ways, in 1992. I'll tell you who wrote these words in a minute, but when you read these words, we should feel a little sad. The author writes, in the study commissioned:

"The long and the short of it is that when you read the recommendations, it's as if virtually nothing has changed for visible minority kids in the school system over the last 10 years. I have to admit that it stopped me in my tracks because I know that the Toronto board, of all the boards, has made a Herculean effort to get the schools to be responsive to the startling multiracial and multicultural changes in the community.

"The students were fiercely articulate and often deeply moving. Sometimes angry. They don't understand why the schools are so slow to reflect the broader society. One bright young man in a Metro east high school said that he had reached grade 13 without once having read a book by a black author on the curriculum. And other students, in the large meeting of which he was a part, started to name the books they had been given to read, the titles were Black Like Me and To Kill a Mockingbird." Those are books I read when I was in school.

"It's absurd in a world which has a positive cornucopia of magnificent literature by black writers. I further recall an animated young woman from a high school in Peel, who described her school as overwhelmingly multiracial and then added that she and her fellow students had white teachers, white counsellors, a white principal and were taught black history"—the little bit that they were—"by a white teacher. There wasn't a single non-white member of the staff.

And then there was a black participant, who rose shyly from the audience to say that he was a teacher and that his most touching experience came on his first day on the job, when a group of black youngsters approached him, solemnly shook his hand and said, 'Thank goodness. A black teacher at last.'"

Those words were written by Stephen Lewis, a member of this Legislature at the time, in a commissioned study that he completed. They were written in 1992—15 years ago. So I see them as a challenge to us all. He, at that time, proposed a secretariat to look into the issues of race in the province, an anti-racism secretariat to be founded back then. Here we are 15 years later and those words still ring as if they were written today. I think that's what's sad.

Here's what's glad. I had a visit from a wonderful organization called the Black Youth Coalition Against Violence. This is a group that grew out of what we call the summer of the gun in Toronto. They're an incredible group of young activists who really want to make a difference, both in the educational system and in the lives of children and adults of colour. They recognize that what Lewis was speaking about so very long ago—he goes on in that document to talk about how mothers watched their young black sons leave home and didn't know whether they'd arrive home alive at night.

I know there are a number of women I've spoken to, even in my own riding, who share that same fear for their children.

This coalition against violence has some wonderful programs, and I want to talk about one of them. This would make Lincoln Alexander so proud, because I know that the best accolade to someone who has accomplished a great deal on their own is to see that their legacy is being upheld and carried forward. One of the programs is called BLING—Bring Love In, Not Guns—which I think is terrific. They've had a series of dinners in Regent Park and other places.

Interjection.

Ms. DiNovo: Good, isn't it? They've had a BLING summit harmony dinner. They get 350 to 400 youth out at these dinners and they talk about those issues that are relevant. Again, most of the youth representatives who are going to be here a little later are teenagers or young adults in their 20s.

They wanted me to bring forward what really is a petition, but I wanted to read some of it just to give us a feel for the kind of legacy that I think Lincoln Alexander would love to see perpetuated. Linc was all about and is all about—because he still is. By the way, there's going to be a big celebration on May 17 to honour him. He's now 85 years old, as many of us know. To go back to the Black Youth Coalition Against Violence, I think this kind of sentiment really honours Linc Alexander. They say:

"Whereas the purpose of the provincial educational system is to provide all students with the knowledge, skills and self-respect to become a self-sufficient and productive member of society; and

"Whereas the Ontario curriculum should be a source of valuable, necessary and truthful information about the development of the world and particularly western civilization; and

"Whereas for decades the province of Ontario has ignored the education crisis among black students reflected in a push-out/dropout rate now estimated to be between 40% and 60%; and

"Whereas the dropout/push-out rate among black students can be partly attributed to feelings of inferiority, hopelessness and alienation, as a result of being taught a curriculum that does not reflect any positive contributions of black people to world and western civilization; and

"Whereas by deliberately omitting the profound role that black people have played in the development of world and western civilization, the provincial educational system is fostering a false sense of white superiority and black inferiority amongst its students;

"We, the undersigned, respectfully petition:

"(1) that the Greeks and Romans, widely considered the founders of the arts and sciences and consequently western civilization, were educated"—and here's something interesting for our students—"by black Egyptians who had already developed a highly sophisticated education system centuries earlier;

"

(2) North African Muslims called the Moors ruled Spain from 712 to 1492 A.D. and laid the base of knowledge that brought Europe out of the Dark Ages and into the Renaissance; and

"(3) apart from economic exploitation, the motive behind slavery and colonialism was to systemically destroy the black family unit and instil mental conditioning to keep black people divided, envious, hateful and distrustful of one another."

This is written by teenagers, high school students, and they're bringing it forward in terms of what's developing into a mass movement across the city in response to what we call in Toronto the summer of the gun.

It's one thing to declare a day and to celebrate someone like Lincoln Alexander—and so we should. This is wonderful, and of course as New Democrats we support it. He's an amazing man. It's a non-partisan move; it's a wonderful move. He played such an important role and a role that I think we should uphold not only as Ontarians but as all Canadians, as Ms. Mossop said. After all, we look south most of the time in this country, and one of my personal heroes, Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, is celebrated all the time, yet we don't uphold our own Canadian and Ontarian heroes. So this is a chance to do that, and of course we support that.

But on a more profound, deeper level, the real accolade to Lincoln Alexander would be to make a difference for our children and our youth, which is what he tried to do and tries to do in everything that he does.

So I would urge all members of his House, when BYCAV comes here to protest out in the front, to go out and join them, to speak to their leaders—they are the future of this province and of this country—to sign the petition when it comes before the Legislature, when it comes to them individually as MPPs, because it will, because these kids are organized and they're determined, and so they should be; and that we look at our educational system, that we look at the stories we tell to each other, that we look at how we tell the history of our world and that we tell a true history of all of our world, not just some of our world.

Again, it's an honour to support this bill from Ms. Mossop, an honour, of course, to celebrate Lincoln Alexander and an even greater honour to look at the legacy that we might leave in this Legislature in his honour, and that is to look after the futures of black youth.

Hon. Marie Bountrogianni (Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, minister responsible for democratic renewal): It's my pleasure to speak this morning in support of

An Act to proclaim Lincoln Alexander Day. I'd like to congratulate my friend and colleague Jennifer Mossop, the member from Stoney Creek, for bringing this bill forward. She's a strong advocate for her riding and the great city of Hamilton.

As a member of provincial Parliament for Hamilton Mountain, I can think of no greater representative of our fine city than Mr. Alexander. As a former Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, Mr. Alexander has broken through many barriers in his lifetime. This is a lifetime of firsts. He was a partner in the first interracial law firm in Canada, the first black Canadian elected as a member of Parliament, the first person of colour appointed to federal cabinet and the first black Lieutenant Governor in Canada. Although he is now in his ninth decade, Mr. Alexander is a role model for a new generation of young people.

He has been my role model since the age of 14. That's when I first met Mr. Alexander, when he was campaigning in west Hamilton. He came to a Greek dance. I was there with my family. That was pretty well my social activities back then, being raised in a very strict manner by a strict family. He was the first person to ask me to dance a tango. He was such a gentleman. He offered his arm. I didn't know what to do. He took my hand, he put it on his arm; so he taught me things, and we went dancing. I'll never forget that moment.

I reminded him of that years, years, years later when I was first elected. He always says to me, "You're my favourite minister," and I say, "I bet you say that to all the ministers." And he says, "Yes, I do." So he's right to the point. The other thing he always says is, "When are you going to give me more money? When are you politicians going to give me more money?" As the member from Stoney Creek said, he's always to the point. Seriously, I can't think of a more important or a more accomplished or a sweeter Hamiltonian.

During his term as Lieutenant Governor for Ontario, he made youth and education issues key parts of his mandate, speaking to students at over 250 schools. He consistently and constantly promotes the importance of education. Mr. Alexander's commitment to young people was recognized by the Ontario government in 1993 when they established the Lincoln M. Alexander Award. The award recognizes young people who have demonstrated outstanding leadership in eliminating racial discrimination. Each year, three young people between the ages of 16 and 25 receive an award of $5,000 each and a framed scroll.

At age 70, Alexander was named a Companion of the Order of Canada. The citation at his induction provides a very good

summary of his life:

"Motivated by his continuing concern for social justice, he has led an exemplary life as a lawyer, politician and Lieutenant Governor of Ontario.

"Known for his good judgment, tolerance, compassion and humanity, he has served the citizens of Ontario well, striving to instill these values in young people and working tirelessly for improved race relations."

Mr. Alexander has been a visionary and a role model for the people of Ontario for over half a century. This act is a wonderful opportunity to ensure that his hard work, his unmatchable contribution to our province and the mentorship he has provided for countless youth in our province are acknowledged. I am proud to stand in support of this bill which would make the third Wednesday in February each year Lincoln Alexander Day.

Mr. Joseph N. Tascona (Barrie—Simcoe—Bradford): I am very pleased to join in the debate today. I have looked at Bill 220, which deals with proclaiming Lincoln Alexander Day in Ontario public schools. I noticed in the

preamble, though, it didn't mention that the Honourable Lincoln MacCauley Alexander was elected in 1968 and re-elected right on until 1980 as a Progressive Conservative MP. Why that's important is because I was going to McMaster University at the time. In 1970, I did my honours BA and then my MBA.

Mr. Hudak: How long was your hair?

Mr. Tascona: It was always short. I'm an Italian; I can't grow it too long. You've got to look good.

During those times, I got to know that Lincoln Alexander was my MP for Hamilton West, which is where the McMaster campus is, and for the period of time that I was at that school, he was there for at least three terms.

It's not surprising that Lincoln Alexander had an outstanding career as a politician, but also I think as a humanitarian. When you look at his CV, it really is outstanding. I had the privilege of sitting with him at the 50th annual Commonwealth parliamentary conference, which first started in Quebec City, and then we moved it to Toronto when Speaker Curling was in charge at the Legislature.

So we were together, and it was quite a good evening in terms of talking with him and discussing, not politics, but things that are important in the parliamentary system, because we were dealing with all the Commonwealth countries, whether they are in Africa, or whether England or Australia. It was a good evening, and I remember that, especially since he was the member when I was at university.

When you look at his record in humanitarian work—it's something that I have looked at. I think it's important. I think most members here think it's important in terms of the work that they do in their constituencies.

When I was going to McMaster, that was when the hospital was built. We were very proud of that hospital in terms of the money that went into it and having it on campus. It was a state-of-the-art facility, also a facility where a good friend of mine whom I went to school with, Dr. Peter Leggett, got his training. He is a doctor in Hamilton now. You could go there, and you didn't necessarily have to come from a specific area. He came out of kinesiology in the phys-ed program at McMaster. They were looking for people with a broader perspective on what it would be to be a doctor in terms of caring for people.

That's what I think was outstanding about the facility at McMaster. But it took politicians such as Lincoln Alexander and other strong politicians in the Hamilton area to make that happen.

I think it's something that's important, because of the work that I do with respect to the Royal Victoria Hospital, and bringing a new hospital there in 1997 after there hadn't been a hospital there since—I believe it was built 50 years prior to that. To have a new hospital in your community, a state-of-the-art facility, is something that's very important.

That hospital at McMaster has only grown in terms of its importance and significance to the area, just like RVH has in terms of the expansion that we're looking at in the next year or two—a 101-bed expansion—along with the cancer care centre that we've done a lot of work at in terms of bringing forth, not only the cancer care centre but working with Hospice Simcoe and bringing forth the first mobile cancer radiation unit, which will be coming to RVH this fall.

It's important for our area, because Hamilton has a number of hospitals. St. Joseph's is another one that I recount, because that was the hospital we used to go to before they had the one on campus. So you need those health care services in your area. I think Lincoln Alexander epitomized that. There are also the social services that you need in an area. I remember Hamilton was the first family law court in the province. That would have been during the time, in the 1980s, that Lincoln Alexander was the chair of the Workers' Compensation Board of Ontario, and there is no doubt that he had some clout with respect to making those types of things happen within the community.

We talk about Canadian heroes. This is an Ontario hero, and certainly closer to home in Hamilton. The work that he has done to make sure that—you know, he's 85 and he is still out there. He's still out there doing public work. I think that's something we should remember as politicians and people who represent their communities: that when we leave here, it's not something we should stop doing, in terms of representing and bringing the best to our community.

So it's important that we recognize someone who not only—I know Tim Hudak would share with me that he was a very well respected Progressive Conservative MP, who served as Minister of Labour in the Joe Clark government. Certainly that was his foundation: Progressive Conservative values. It followed through in terms of what he felt was important for his community.

It's obvious, when I was going to school in McMaster in Hamilton West—it's a very diverse community. The fact that he represented that area as a Progressive Conservative, and the fact that he chose the Progressive Conservative Party to enter politics, and was there for over 10 years, I think says a lot with respect to what he thought was important not only for himself but as we go on. I think that epitomizes the type of work that is important to any member.

This week I met with GO Transit officials, as we're having GO Transit move into our area this fall. That's something Hamilton has had for many years. But the meeting I had with the GO Transit officials this week was very positive in terms of bringing that to Barrie, when it was cut out back in 1992. We have that link, and we can link right now all the way over to Hamilton. I think that's important.

Just in passing as I close here, I do have this Saturday, May 12, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., an environmental project. It's at Lovers Creek and Chalmers Park, where we're going to be planting trees as an environmental project to enhance the environment in the city of Barrie. I welcome all my constituents to join me this Saturday from 10 to 1 at Chalmers Park.

Mr. Michael Prue (Beaches—East York): Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I'm just checking—yes, two minutes. I was told they saved me two minutes. Sorry, I had to be outside the Legislature for a few minutes.

I've come back just to speak about Lincoln Alexander. I'm sure everyone has talked about his many accomplishments, so I'm going to leave that for the record. I share in those many accomplishments over the years.

I'd like to talk about Lincoln Alexander the man: the man I have come to know, the man who, when I come into a room, always remembers my name—and he must know far more people than me. The man, when I was first elected as a councillor and had the opportunity to meet him, was very gregarious, very charming, very honourable. In my time as a mayor when I met him, he continued to remember those. He always was there to speak, and to speak so honestly and forthrightly. He was always there in a very charming capacity with a wonderful, wonderful sense of humour.

I remember meeting with him and talking about issues, and even though some of the issues were very dear to his heart and he felt very passionately about the causes against racism and the proposals he was making to try to help black youth in trouble—he felt very strongly about them, but he always, when he spoke, did so with compassion and understanding. He never did it with rancour or bitterness, he never got angry with those who opposed his point of view, and he was and is a true gentleman in every sense of the word.

The last time I saw him, or the last time I remember having a lengthy conversation with him, was at an event in the dining room here in the Legislature. It was one of those evening events that politicians like to go to. I remember some of the speakers standing up, and sitting beside him as he commented wryly on the merits or demerits of what they had to say. But he did so in such a jovial way that the people sitting around him enjoyed—even more than listening to the politicians talk about subjects, they listened to Lincoln Alexander's running commentary of those same politicians.

I look fondly on all of my experiences with him over the years. I understand it to be his 85th birthday either now or in a few days, and all we can all do is wish him a long life and many more happy memories to him that he has brought to us.

Mr. Ted McMeekin (Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Aldershot): It gives me great pleasure to rise to compliment my colleague from Stoney Creek as well as to talk about my good friend His Honour Lincoln Alexander.

I have been very privileged in life to meet some great Canadians. I have been close friends with people, from Lois Wilson, to John Diefenbaker, to Tommy Douglas—of course, Paul Martin; I've met Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, Terry Fox. But I want to tell you, as a great, great Hamiltonian, there's Lincoln Alexander, whom I'm fortunate to call a friend.

I first met Lincoln, like Mr. Hudak's colleague, as a student at McMaster. He was my MP as well, as it turns out. I recall in 1972 attending a debate, and it was a very hot day. There was a huge crowd of students, several hundred students, and the NDP candidate of the day, Peggy Leppert, took ill. She fainted while speaking, only to be scooped up into the arms of the giant Lincoln and literally carried from the room to have her brow mopped down by His Honour, who then escorted her back in so she could finish the debate. It was one of those moments I'll never forget.

Later I had a chance encounter with Linc that sort of sealed our friendship. We both, as it turns out, ended up being featured speakers at an annual meeting of the Alzheimer Society of Canada. His beloved Yvonne was stricken with the illness, as was my late mother. We had that in common and we did some work together raising funds for that very wonderful group. He continues, as I do, to have an interest in eradicating that disease.

Later I had a chance to work quite closely with Lincoln, when he was made a patron of the Burlington Teen Tour Band. A couple of my staff people have a long history with the teen tour band, so we're quite involved at the McMeekin constituency office in affirming these young folk.

I can remember one particular incident. I don't want to talk about all the honorary degrees and stuff; that's all been covered. I want to talk about the man. I remember at one concert the teen tour band was doing, Lincoln was invited to speak, and he spoke to those of us in the audience as leaders of today and of himself as a leader of yesterday. He said, "Look, the leaders of yesterday and the leaders of today ought to get their chequebooks out and write cheques for these kids. While you're writing the cheque—forgive my back—I'm going to talk to these young folk," and he did exactly that.

For the next seven minutes on stage he turned and spoke intimately; walked around having intimate conversations, with these young people. One of these kids said to me, "You know, he instantly went from old fart to icon." I thought that was kind of an interesting way of putting it.

I remember being at a fundraising banquet for the teen tour band later and, given that I was a friend of Lincoln's, I was given the task of getting him out of the kitchen. He insisted on walking around and affirming everybody, all the volunteers who were working in the kitchen, and we were about 20 minutes late getting started because we had to get Linc back in the room.

Sir William Hughes, the musical director of the teen tour band, speaks very, very highly of him. I recall something he said recently: "Public morality really relies on private character," and that is Lincoln Alexander, who himself has always exemplified that public service is not an option, it's an obligation.

Lincoln Alexander, my friend, our friend, friend of young people across Ontario, is a very deserving person in terms of this honour, and I look forward to supporting this bill.

Ms. Judy Marsales (Hamilton West): I'm absolutely delighted and honoured to rise to speak in support of the proposed Lincoln Alexander Day Act, 2007. If ever there was a man in Ontario who is deserving of such an honour, it would be the Honourable Lincoln Alexander, or, as we affectionately call him in Hamilton, simply "Linc."

It has been said that it's not where a person ends up but rather how far they come that defines their strength of character. As you have heard, Lincoln Alexander's journey is a testament to his tenacity, his persistence, his integrity, coupled with a huge capability and competency, and supported by an undeterred belief in the improvements of the elements which will contribute to a better life for Ontarians.

Linc represented the federal riding of Hamilton West, and it's with great pride for Hamilton West that we celebrate his achievements today. It's widely known that Lincoln's contributions to Hamilton are legendary. His accomplishments are amazing. And his continued involvement in support of culture, arts and education is an inspiration to everyone.

But, Mr. Speaker, I'd like to tell you a little bit about the human element of this giant of a man, who casts a tall shadow in stature and in leadership. I'm going to share some personal experiences. I was attending a local event many years ago and was very intimidated to go over and introduce myself to this honoured and celebrated public figure. I gathered my courage, I walked over to him, I extended my hand, introducing myself, and with a booming voice he said, "I know you. Keep up your good work." I was astounded. He was referring to my community work and my business. And when Linc speaks, his eyes twinkle with a kindness he projects.

A few years later, when our paths crossed again, he walked up to me, clearly this time with a purpose. He had heard I was thinking of embarking on a new career in politics and wanted to offer me advice and encouragement, as only Linc can do, with an earnest interest in Hamilton, sharing his reflections and his knowledge. Over the years we have attended countless events as guests and enjoyed chatter and laughter and shared some very interesting and similar experiences.

I have never had the benefit of listening to Linc address the House of Commons, but I did get a glimpse of his powerful ability as an orator at a very moving event in Hamilton last year called Perlasca. He was a guest speaker, along with the Israeli and Italian Consuls General and Rabbi Emeritus Bernard Baskin. Lincoln spoke with passion and authority, holding every guest in Hamilton Place emotionally entranced.

Linc embodies the experience of Ontario through his life works, and I offer three observations. He's demonstrated courage to not see barriers as a block to his progress, but rather as opportunities to change the lives of the people in Ontario for the better, to change them through his presence, through his commitment, through his hard work and through his dedication. Secondly, he offered hope to those whose ambitions were previously limited by race, education or circumstance. Third, he encouraged others to follow their dreams, not to give up and not to give in but to proceed against all odds.

I stand before you as someone who's been encouraged by the Honourable Lincoln Alexander. I am indeed thankful for his friendship, for his personal words of wisdom and for his support. Lincoln Alexander recounts his remarkable life in his memoir entitled Go to School, You're a Little Black Boy, of which I am very privileged to own a signed copy.

Last year Linc was named Hamilton's most distinguished citizen. Clearly, the citizens of Hamilton value Linc's contributions and his fortitude. We in this Legislature also value the immense contributions of the Honourable Lincoln Alexander. I support this motion with great intensity and thanks to a man for whom I hold great respect, and whom I consider a personal friend.

Linc, to you from Hamilton West, we say, "Thanks, and keep up the good work."

Mrs. Liz Sandals (Guelph—Wellington): I too am delighted to rise to speak in support of Ms. Mossop's motion to create Lincoln Alexander Day in Ontario schools.

My Hamilton-area colleagues have spoken about their personal connections with Lincoln Alexander, but there's also a Guelph connection: Linc has been the chancellor of the University of Guelph for a number of years. In fact, the university community has kept on insisting that he be reappointed. Many of you will know that, in most cases, being chancellor is sort of a ceremonial role. In Linc's case, it's an emotional role, where he seems to have managed to connect with the entire campus.

As students come up and cross the platform at convocation, it's quite fascinating to be sitting there beside Linc, because as he takes each person's hand and they kneel before him to receive their hood and accept their degree, Linc has a personal word for each student. In fact, if it's a young woman, he tends to check out the hand to see if they're wearing an engagement ring, and in those few seconds that it takes to go by and be granted their degree, he has usually checked out their wedding plans and their future plans for life.

With the young gentlemen, he can't check out the wedding plans, but he does check out what it is that they're planning to do next.

I know that when my own daughter graduated, he grabbed her hand and said, "Your grandmother is down there with a camera. Turn around and smile," and wouldn't let her go until she'd done what she was told and smiled for her grandmother.

So he has just been amazing at connecting with people all over the province on an individual basis.

I want to go back to the autobiography Go to School, You're a Little Black Boy. This was co-authored with Guelph author Herb Shoveller. The publisher was apparently very concerned that people would be offended by the title, but Linc insisted that he wanted to quote his mother in the title because he thought that captured the value of education for children.

This is a wonderful motion; I support it.

The Deputy Speaker: Ms. Mossop, you have up to two minutes to respond.

Ms. Mossop: I want to thank the members for Erie—Lincoln, Parkdale—High Park, Hamilton Mountain, Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Aldershot, Hamilton West and Guelph—Wellington for taking

part in this debate/storytelling.

The bill is aimed, as I said, at schools and at students, so it is worth noting that there are three schools called Lincoln Alexander Public School, as well as Lincoln M. Alexander Secondary School. In 1993, the government of Ontario created the Lincoln M. Alexander Award to reward young Ontarians who have demonstrated exemplary leadership in the elimination of racial discrimination.

We have come a very long way since Depression-era white Canada, but racial discrimination and hatred, often based in fear, often based in ignorance and smallness, is still rife in our world, and it thrives in dark and foolish hearts. I don't know if there is a cure for it, but in Linc, we can take a cue. Many might have called him a fool for not lashing out at those who unfairly discriminated against him. They might have called him a fool for not lashing out with violence and with destruction. But Linc is no fool. He fought with an open and a generous heart, and he won. Oh, how he won.

It is in his CV, it is in his eyes, it is in that deep, varied, rich heart of his that he met the world with and in that deep, rich, varied voice that so engaged me initially and that will resonate for many, many, many generations to come.

We have so much to thank Linc for. He has given us so much, and this is a small way of saying, "Thank you, Linc."

The Deputy Speaker: The time provided for private members' public business has expired.

PRESCRIPTION MONITORING ACT, 2007 /

LOI DE 2007 SUR LA SURVEILLANCE

PHARMACEUTIQUE

The Deputy Speaker (Mr. Bruce Crozier): We shall deal first with ballot item number 6, standing in the name of Mr. Ramal.

Mr. Ramal has moved second reading of Bill 108. Is it the pleasure of the House that the motion carry?

All those in favour, say "aye."

All those opposed, say "nay."

In my opinion, the ayes have it. Carried.

Mr. Khalil Ramal (London—Fanshawe): Can I move my bill to the standing committee on social policy?

The Deputy Speaker: Mr. Ramal has asked that the bill be referred to the standing commission on social policy. Agreed? Agreed.

LINCOLN ALEXANDER DAY ACT, 2007 /

LOI DE 2007 SUR LE JOUR

DE LINCOLN ALEXANDER

The Deputy Speaker (Mr. Bruce Crozier): We shall now deal with ballot item number 7, standing in the name of Ms. Mossop.

Ms. Mossop has moved second reading of Bill 220. Is it the pleasure of the House that the motion carry? Carried.

Ms. Jennifer F. Mossop (Stoney Creek): I'd ask that the bill be referred to the standing committee on regulations and private bills, please.

The Deputy Speaker: Ms. Mossop has asked that the bill be referred to the standing committee on regulations and private bills. Agreed? Agreed.

What a pleasure it has been chairing this meeting this morning of private members' business.

Since all matters relating to private members' business have been dealt with, I do now leave the chair. The House will resume at 1:30 of the clock.

The House recessed from 1200 to 1330.

MEMBERS' STATEMENTS

NURSES

Mrs. Elizabeth Witmer (Kitchener—Waterloo): Today, during Nursing Week, it is a great pleasure that I rise on behalf our leader, John Tory, and the members of my party to pay tribute and celebrate the contribution of nurses to excellence in patient care and service. It is an opportunity to acknowledge the many contributions of nurses in their varied roles as direct care providers, educators, administrators, researchers and policy experts. It is an opportunity to thank them for serving with a compassionate and caring heart.

Yes, our nurses are very much the heart of our health system. It is their compassion, their dedication, their knowledge, their skills and their patient-centred approach that make them such a vital part of our health system. It is their commitment to always putting the patient first that has allowed them to make such a positive difference in the lives of so many Ontarians on a daily basis. It is their commitment to putting the patient first that has enabled them to work with governments of all stripes to develop policies to not only contribute to furthering the excellence in health care, but also to building a very strong nursing profession.

During our time in office, we were proud to work with them to position nurses to influence the policy and decision-making of government. We supported the advanced practice roles and we made investments. We championed educational reform and invested in research.

Congratulations to all nurses.

UNIVERSITY RESEARCH

AND INNOVATION

Mrs. Liz Sandals (Guelph—Wellington): Recently, I was proud to announce that the McGuinty government is supporting three research projects at the University of Guelph totalling $8.66 million.

This investment is part of the Ontario research fund's research infrastructure program, which helps researchers obtain the lab space, equipment and computer software they need to stay on the forefront of innovation. To succeed in the changing economy we need to develop new ideas and turn these ideas into exciting products and services that we can market to the world.

Six hundred and sixty-six thousand dollars go to Dr. Paul Garrett, who will use an innovative new array of neutron detectors—the most advanced in the world—to conduct research at the frontiers of nuclear physics.

Dr. Jacek Lipowski received $2.8 million. His team from U of G's Centre for Food and Soft Materials Science conduct collaborative biomaterials research among physicists, chemists and biologists.

Dr. Stefan Kycia's research team will receive $5.2 million to create the new Brockhouse X-ray Diffraction and Scattering Sector as part of a national program of new materials discovery.

This funding will leverage investments from 14 other industrial and academic partners, for a total spending of $36.6 million.

On a personal note, my father was chair of the physics department and the first dean of physical science. I'm proud of U of G physicists.

SIGN LANGUAGE IN SCHOOLS

Ms. Laurie Scott (Haliburton—Victoria—Brock): I am pleased to rise in the House today to draw your attention to the issues surrounding the education of those who are deaf, deafened or hard of hearing.

On February 28 of this year, I had the opportunity to attend a community forum on deaf education, hosted by the Ontario Association of the Deaf. There were over 450 concerned parents and members of the deaf community who attended this event, including representatives from my riding of Haliburton—Victoria—Brock. They were passionately pleading with the McGuinty government to listen to their concerns.

This Friday, May 11, at 9 a.m., the Ontario Association of the Deaf is holding a rally here at Queen's Park to show support for deaf children's rights to American Sign Language education in Ontario.

The deaf community has stressed that the lack of adequate American Sign Language instruction in our schools is a primary concern among parents of deaf children. The association has stated that the creation of minimum standards for the use of sign language in our schools is a necessary step to ensure that deaf students are receiving an adequate education.

We all know that access to quality education is the key to a positive, productive future for these students and all students in Ontario.

The Ontario Association of the Deaf is calling on the Ministry of Education to create minimum standards for the sign language instruction. OAD stresses the need for this government to recognize that some students don't succeed in spoken language programs and a transition policy needs to be put in place for those students so they will have access to adequate sign language instruction. Let's ensure that all those who are deaf, deafened and hard of hearing have the adequate education to allow them to reach their full potential.

CHATHAM—KENT

Mr. Pat Hoy (Chatham—Kent Essex): In a recent survey titled North American Cities of the Future—Foreign Direct Investment, the business magazine for the Financial Times of London, UK—it had cities in the United States, Canada and Mexico compete directly against each other.

Chatham—Kent placed ninth in the small cities of the future category in all of North America, fourth in Canada. It also ranked second as the most cost-effective in North America and first in Canada. The magazine considers a small city to have a population of 100,000 to 500,000. Chatham—Kent is barely over 100,000, yet they were able to compete with the entire of North America.

The judging criteria included economic potential, cost effectiveness, human resources, quality of life, infrastructure and business friendliness. Chatham—Kent's proximity to the United States makes it an ideal choice for industry. Automotive and other manufacturing companies also benefit from the easy access to major US markets within one hour's drive. Highway 401 is the main transport trade corridor throughout Chatham—Kent. They also offer the benefits of a highly skilled and motivated labour force.

Chatham—Kent has some of the best farmland in the province. As a lifelong resident of Merlin, and a farmer, I can attest to its diversity and agricultural richness. I can honestly say that if we can't produce it here, it doesn't grow in Canada. Our farmers are among the most productive and versatile in the world. Congratulations to all the people of Chatham—Kent.

MINISTRY OF CITIZENSHIP

AND IMMIGRATION GRANTS

Mr. Jim Wilson (Simcoe—Grey): Has the Liberal Party not learned anything from Adscam? In the wake of the sponsorship scandal, where millions of dollars were shovelled out the door to groups with strong Liberal ties, Dalton McGuinty seems to be doing it all over again with his year-end political slush fund. It's Adscam number two. As Debra Kelly from the Newmarket-Aurora Era-Banner wrote:

"For several weeks, the opposition has been demanding to know how groups with close Liberal ties received hundreds of thousands of taxpayers' dollars without documentation, oversight or any kind of accountability.

"In Richmond Hill, for instance, $200,000 was given to the Iranian-Canadian Cultural Centre, which was registered as an animal welfare group, with all seven of its board members having made donations to the Liberal Party.

"In all, $32 million went to 110 groups in the past two years, with not so much as an application form.

"Just as Treasury Board President Reg Alcock then pooh-poohed $12 million in Adscam dollars, Finance Minister Greg Sorbara called $200,000 'a pittance' in slush dollars.

"There it is, just like 2004, that absolute and utter disregard for taxpayers.

"As it was on Parliament Hill, fiscal responsibility, democratic accountability and ethical behaviour matter very little at Mr. McGuinty's Queen's Park."

Yes, it's Adscam all over again. As the Globe and Mail wrote this week, "Laughter is a fitting response to the absurd tales the Ontario government is telling about the $32 million it gave away to groups, some with Liberal connections."

It's Adscam number two, all over again.

MILL CLOSURE

Mr. Gilles Bisson (Timmins—James Bay): Yet again, there's bad news in northern Ontario. Today I rise, unfortunately, to talk about another mill that's closing indefinitely in northern Ontario. Today, 150 workers at the Northern Hardwood mills in Thunder Bay are going down indefinitely. For Thunder Bay, that means that two sawmills are slated to close, on top of two paper mills and one containerboard mill that have already closed.

Thunder Bay has received a huge blow, yet this government seems to think that everything is fine. They go around content with themselves as if everything is fine, that they're doing a great job. But for the workers in Thunder Bay and across northern Ontario, the story is the same. On the outskirts of Thunder Bay, you have the sawmill in Dorion that's closing. The Red Rock Norampac mill is closed. To the east of Thunder Bay, the Bowater Ignace sawmill shut its doors as a direct result of your softwood lumber agreement, and that was just but a short time ago.

The woodlands workers at Ignace have seen layoffs recently. Now, the entire woodlands operation at Ignace is at risk of closing down indefinitely. For Ignace, a town with a population of little more than 1,000 people, that is a huge, devastating blow, as it was for the people of Chapleau, the people of Smooth Rock Falls, the people of Opasatika—and the list goes on.

That blow dealt to Thunder Bay, Ignace, Red Rock and communities across the north, including, as I said, Smooth Rock Falls and Opasatika—it's a huge blow. Your energy policies have led to this, and this government's inaction will be well remembered in the next election when people have a—

The Speaker (Hon. Michael A. Brown): Thank you.

MCMASTER UNIVERSITY

Mr. Ted McMeekin (Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Aldershot): I take great pleasure in making frequent visits to my alma mater, McMaster University. McMaster is not only one of Canada's premier research institutions, it's also a source of great local pride.

It's clear from listening to McMaster students that we have turned a new page on the divisive bitterness of past governments. Students understand that our government's priorities are different and include major reinvestments in education and far more money by way of direct student support.

Our $6.2-billion Reaching Higher plan is ensuring that 80,000 more students receive grant support, three times the 2003 level; 86,000 new post-secondary spaces have been created; and 145,000 more low- and middle-income students are receiving enhanced student aid. There's $300 million more for student aid, $220 million more in support of graduate education, and $275 million more for much-needed facility improvement and research. Clearly, our government is getting things done.

We're making good progress with our investments in education because we've invested so much time actually listening to students and responding to their needs. Through research and innovation and strategic educational investments, we are responding to the challenges of the global economy. Ontario is helping our students to achieve their goals and, in so doing, is ensuring that Ontario can be its very best.

NURSES

Mr. Brad Duguid (Scarborough Centre): I rise in the House today to talk about the great things that are happening for Ontario's nurses, some of which are happening even in the riding of Leeds—Grenville, since the member for that riding doesn't seem to want to recognize the great progress being made by the McGuinty government.

We know that our honourable Minister of Health has said that our nurses are the heart of our health care system. As a result, we're working with them to address their needs and improve their supports. I should remind the member for Leeds—Grenville that Brockville General will benefit from eight nursing grads thanks to the McGuinty government's nursing grad guarantee.

Let's think back to what life was like for nurses under the sad record of the Tories. Between 1995 and 1998, there were 8,000 fewer nurses working in Ontario hospitals. The former Tory leader even referred to our nurses as hula hoops. After the Conservatives failed to address the nurse shortage in our province, we listened to what nurses said they wanted, and that is one of the reasons why we're creating 8,000 new nursing positions.

We know there is more work to do, but we assure our nurses that the Conservative days of underappreciation and underfunding are over. The people of Ontario are too smart. They have no intention of returning to those days. The McGuinty government is making progress with the continued input from our valued nursing professionals. We will keep moving forward for the betterment of our Ontario nurses and the betterment of the people of Ontario.

ELECTORAL REFORM

Mr. Tony Ruprecht (Davenport): I rise in the House today to talk about what the McGuinty government is doing to modernize our electoral process and how that would help to enhance the integrity and security of Ontario's electoral system.

By putting party names on the ballot, we can help voters to make more informed decisions. We're also making it easier to vote by extending polling hours by an extra hour, and we have more than doubled the number of advanced poll days, from six to 13, during regularly scheduled elections.

We value the input of Ontarians, which is why we created the Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform. We also know it is important for our voters to be knowledgeable on the issues of electoral reform, which is why we are giving the Chief Election Officer the responsibility to deliver a neutral public education campaign.

We're excited to move forward with the reforms as we head into October's election, and we're also looking forward to working with Ontarians to identify and implement their suggestions and their needs.

We know we need to continue to evolve to meet the needs of Ontarians and we are committed to doing so now and into the future.

REPORTS BY COMMITTEES

STANDING COMMITTEE ON

GENERAL GOVERNMENT

Mr. Kevin Daniel Flynn (Oakville): I beg leave to present a report from the standing committee on general government and move its adoption.

The Acting Clerk-at-the-Table (Ms. Tonia Grannum): Your committee begs to report the following bill as amended:

Bill 184,

An Act to protect species at risk and to make related changes to other Acts / Projet de loi 184, Loi visant à protéger les espèces en péril et à apporter des modifications connexes à d'autres lois.

The Speaker (Hon. Michael A. Brown): Shall the report be received and adopted? Agreed? Agreed.

The bill is therefore ordered for third reading.

STANDING COMMITTEE ON FINANCE

AND ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

Mr. Pat Hoy (Chatham—Kent Essex): I beg leave to present a report from the standing committee on finance and economic affairs and move its adoption.

The Acting Clerk-at-the-Table (Ms. Tonia Grannum): Your committee begs to report the following bill as amended:

Bill 203,

An Act to amend the Highway Traffic Act and the Remedies for Organized Crime and Other Unlawful Activities Act, 2001 and to make consequential amendments to other Acts / Projet de loi 203, Loi modifiant le Code de la route et la Loi de 2001 sur les recours pour crime organisé et autres activités illégales et apportant des modifications corrélatives à d'autres lois.

The Speaker (Hon. Michael A. Brown): Shall the report be received and adopted? Agreed? Agreed.

The bill is therefore ordered for third reading.

INTRODUCTION OF BILLS

NO MORE FINANCING TIERS

IN EDUC