Alright, thanks everyone for joining we have another minute until we are going to start the webinar looks like we still have some more people that are going to be joining on so I will wait. Just a moment to actually get us started. In the meantime, I'm going to go ahead and share my screen so that you all can see today's presentation. Alright, if I could just get one or two people to type into the chat section of the zoom control panel you'll find it most likely at the bottom of your screen. Let me know if you can hear me okay. And if you can see the San Diego give slide deck up on the screen. Great. Thank you appreciate that everyone. Alright, so down in that same control panel next to the chat you'll see there's another Q&A section. That's a great opportunity for you to post any questions if you do have them at any point in today's webinar. We'll cover lots of really great information during the webinar and then we'll leave some time for live Q&A at the end. So if you do have any questions, please feel free to type them in anytime in that Q&A section. We'll try to get to as many questions as we can on today's webinar. And if we do run out of time, we will make sure to follow up with anyone after the webinar as long as you type your question into that Q&A. So with that, it's just about two o'clock for me here in eastern time so I'm going to go ahead and get us started. Another note here the record the webinar will be recorded so a copy of the recording will be made available to everybody who registered and will be posted on the San Diego Gibbs website. So you can share today's presentation so you can know that you'll be able to access it share it with colleagues, etc after today's presentation. So, with that we'll go ahead and get started we're here to talk about San Diego Gibbs Day. Very exciting. Today's webinar primarily is going to focus on all the basics in terms of getting started getting up and running on the platform. My name is Bethany. I am the Vice President of Community Engagement here at Mighty Cause. And we are also joined today by Lauren Welch, the Development Director at Urban Core. We'll be hearing from her in just a minute to give you a little bit more of the local spin on the San Diego Gibbs campaign. So a quick overview of our agenda for today as I mentioned we're really going to primarily focus on the basics. So we're going to talk a little bit about the basics of San Diego Gibbs Day what is the event all about what is it giving day really all about. And then we're going to spend most of our time focused on the actual platform. How do you get started on the platform. How do you update your page. How do you manage your account. Key things to know about San Diego Gibbs Day. And then, as I mentioned earlier we will end with a Q&A section so you do have questions throughout the webinar please feel free to type them in. We'll leave some time for live Q&A at the end. So, starting off with some basics about the San Diego Gibbs campaign. I'm going to turn it over to Lauren, who I just introduced joining us today and she is going to share some of the basics about this event and kind of where it came from and some of the exciting things that you can look forward to for this year. Thanks Bethany. Hi everybody. Yes, so we're as you know at this point our first annual giving day of course is September 9th and the hope is that we'll do this and have great success and do it for years to come. The days being hosted by a steering committee of local nonprofits there's 12 of us and I'm happy to share those in the chat here in a minute but it. Like Bethany said it started just from a place of. Is there something other than giving Tuesday it's really oversaturated is there a way that we can really make regional and really focus on San Diego and its resources and its nonprofits. And so that's kind of where we started back in late last year. I did want to speak really briefly on $100 the $100 application fee and the use of and the due date of that as of 5 minutes ago or at the last time I got an email. We have 113 agencies that were approved and signed up for the day which is amazing. And of those 113 38 have paid that fee. It's not due till the end of the month. So you have a few weeks to do that and I really wanted to speak on the use of that fee. And to kind of give you some guys some exciting information. You know, San Diego gives us itself as a campaign and then each of you will have your own nonprofit page and campaign and so we're using that application fee as well as any sponsor money that we've received to help promote like crazy like. Insanely a lot so that it's everywhere and everyone sees it and everyone knows of it.  On that note, there's some really exciting news. We have I heart radio as a sponsor and we'll be putting it on all their radio channels coming up and through the day and then we just confirmed yesterday a sponsorship with Cox to air a video we're working on. Hundreds of times so that's a really great news that's just the start of kind of getting up on and doing that really quickly so I don't spend a ton of time. We are having an upcoming meet and greet with just the steering committee to talk about what we're doing in a way of media. How, you know, because Bethany's talking today about the platform and the use of it for your campaign. We also want to touch base with whoever wants to hear just about what we're doing locally in our media committee and our sponsorship committee and everything else. I will put a link as soon as I'm done talking I'll put that in the chat so you can register for that. And I think that is it. If you want to see a list of all the agencies I'll put a link there too on the San Diego gives page to see everyone who signed up. And then if you have any questions that email info at San Diego gives can help with anything related to anything so I think that's it Bethany thank you. Great. Thanks Lauren. She may be chiming in from time to time as we go through the webinar and she will be here as well as we do questions at the end so questions for either mighty cause for Lauren. And if you haven't gathered yet to what I haven't mentioned yet is that Lauren was just speaking about all the exciting things from the local angle of trying to bring this giving day together. And Lauren and the steering committee has partnered with mighty cause to be the technology platform for the giving day so in case you're wondering who is waiting cause why am I being told to do something on mighty cause. We are the technology platform that helps to power the giving day. Real quickly, some of you may have participated in giving days before some of you may not have as Lauren already mentioned giving Tuesday most everyone's familiar with giving Tuesday but just a super quick behind the scenes about what is it giving today about how does it work. The goal really is to bring local nonprofits together to raise funds and engage donors in a focused urgent streamlined 24 hour event. And by working collectively, it allows each of the individual participating agencies the opportunity to raise more for their cause, and the community as a whole as she mentioned some of the exciting media that they're working on. The word is going to be out about San Diego gifts in September. And so your nonprofit is going to be available to, you know, for for donors visitors to the site to find new nonprofits to support in their local community. So really great opportunity to raise awareness for your work, your mission attract new donors. And something that's really key is that the success of San Diego gives and the success of your nonprofits campaign as a part of San Diego gives really depends on each of you. And so, Lauren and her team are doing great work to get sponsorships, media partners on board to help spread the word but it's really going to be up to each individual nonprofit to plan a successful fundraising campaign to ensure their success. So it's an opportunity for you as a nonprofit to engage your board in a focus fundraising effort, engage any corporate partners, activate peer to peer fundraisers if that's a strategy you want to take on board at really see what you can do to amplify your fundraising efforts. matching grants is something that we'll talk about prizes media all of those things help to add some additional excitement to a 24 hour giving day. So, what do you need to do. Hopefully, and I assume everybody at this point on the webinar has completed the application and you've been approved. The next step as Lauren was just mentioning is paying that application fee by the end of the month. So once you do that you can transition into the next phase of the campaign which is really the planning and preparing. So you're going to customize your organization's profile page on the mighty cause platform we're going to spend some time today, showing you how to do that set goals for your campaign. How much do you want to raise, are you looking to specifically engage a certain number of new donors. So what is the goal that really makes sense for your nonprofit and then plan a fundraising campaign that goes along with that specific goal. Perhaps you want to invite supporters to participate as peer to peer fundraisers.  When the day starts it's really all about raising funds for your cause. Simple, right. So now we're going to transition into the actual how tos of using the platform. So, now that you all have access to your organization's page you should have been given access as you were going through the application process. If you can have access. Then you can email support at mighty cause calm. But if you log into the same user account that you used to submit the application, you should see in the upper right hand corner of the page, a user menu which will allow you to access your nonprofits dashboard on the platform. And so that dashboard is really going to walk you through all the things you may need to know and do for this campaign. Very quick overview of what you can expect to see on that dashboard. The first screen is an overview goal is to kind of welcome you back to the platform on that page. Next down the list is your organization's profile page. That's the page that you're going to customize share with supporters for the San Diego Gibbs campaign. A whole host of fundraising tools that you'll have access to from starting peer to peer fundraiser campaigns, adding a matching grant, etc. Reports, you'll have detailed donations reports, all in real time all exportable as a CSV, the ability to customize your checkout. So what question what what donation levels or donor seeing when they come to make a gift to your organization. And then finally your settings so any other key details will talk about what you have access to in your settings. Quick overview of what you can expect on your dashboard. Next up on the overview screen itself. This is as I mentioned you're welcome to the platform the goals to kind of orient your organization each time you log in and access your nonprofits dashboard. You'll start right here in the overview screen. So a couple key things that you can be aware of on that overview screen. The first in the top left corner, as you'll see highlighted in yellow on your overview screen is a to do list. This is really our platforms way of guiding you through the most important things you'll want to complete to make sure that you are ready for the giving day. So there's five key items on this to do list, adding a logo, adding a background image to your page, adding a story or description to your organization's profile page. So you're going to be recognizing the thank you page which donors donors will see after they complete their gift, and signing up for EFT direct deposit disbursement, so that after the campaign is over, you can receive your funds more quickly more easily via direct deposit. The to do list will walk you through completing those five items, you can click on the links in each of those items in the to do list to access the place on the platform to do that. And once you've completed the to do list you'll see that notification in your overview screen that you're all set there. This is also a place that you can go to see announcements information about San Diego give stay so if you were to visit your overview page today you'd see an announcement inviting you to visit the nonprofit toolkit, which is where you can access resources including after today's webinar the recording of today's webinar you can sign up for the meet and greet and future webinar access email templates social media templates customer support. Resources, so that is what you'll see there today, but but there will be future updates and announcements coming so make sure that you're always taking a look at what announcements are shared there. And the final thing you'll see on the overview screen is a set of customizable metrics, so you can determine what are the most important metrics for your organization, or for you personally to track when you're coming on to the platform is it. How many donors, how many dollars, is it the total average gift size to your organization is it the largest gift we have tons of metrics to choose from. There will be a default set selected for you, but when you come to the platform you can take a look at that and you can decide what metrics are important for you to see when you log into the platform. Each administrator for your nonprofit will have a unique set there or they have the opportunity to have a unique set. So if your executive director maybe cares about these three stats but you want to look at these other four stats. Each of you has the opportunity to customize the overview screen so that every time you log into the platform, you're seeing the data that's most important to you. So, next on the dashboard is your profile page so we'll spend a little bit time talking about the profile page. As I mentioned already this is going to be the main link that you customize and share with your supporters to raise funds during this campaign. You have the opportunity to customize this page, make the look and feel match the look and feel of your nonprofits brand with logos imagery theme color etc and we'll talk about what you can change there. And finally the goal of this page is to tell a powerful story about why donors should give to your organization as a part of this San Diego Gibbs campaign. So if you're raising funds for a specific project or program you can highlight it, raising funds for operating expenses make sure that you're making a compelling case to donors as to why they should support your nonprofit. And you'll see, as you move throughout the platform you're going to have on page editing. So you're being you're able to see the changes that you're making live on the page while you're doing it anytime you see a pencil icon on your page you can click on that field to make the edit right there on the page. So I mentioned a little bit about the theme the ability to customize the look and feel of your page. So you have a couple different ways that you can do that. First, you can upload your organization's logo. And this is really the most basic requirements recommendation for any participating nonprofit. Go ahead and add your logo, it's going to be a one to one aspect ratio so that's the same as you're using for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram so it should be pretty easy to find one that you can upload there. If you want to upload a background image, or select one from our gallery, we have a gallery of somewhere between I believe 20 to 30 photos at this point that are just sort of there for texture and background imagery if you're looking for a great photo working on finding a great photo on your own. This background image is really meant to be just something to again sort of align the page to your branding. Always important to take a look at what your page is going to look like on mobile other screen sizes as well. But keep in mind this image is really more just for background effect on your page you'll have another space later on the page in your actual description, your story section if you will where you can add photos right in line there. So this is just one place that you can start with adding a photo. You can add a filter on top of that photo if you need to make it brighter, darker, etc, and you can play around with the strength of that filter so again, you are able to be making these changes right on the page and you're seeing what the pages look like so it's not hard to make sure that you have a good looking page you don't have to be a graphic designer you can just play around with the tools and see what kind of response you're getting from the platform. Finally, you have the opportunity to set the theme color for your page. So that's going to control what color the donate button is and then some other items as you move through further down the page. You have the opportunity to tie back into your logo or one of your nonprofits key brand colors. As we move down the profile page the next section that you'll have the opportunity to update is your metric section. So you can choose whether you show the dollars raised and the number of unique donors to your page, you can show both, or you can just show dollars raised. It's up to you. You can also choose whether you'd like to include offline donations on your page we'll talk a little bit more about it later, but there is a tool in the platform if you do receive a check or cash, or a major gift in some other way and you'd like to make sure that that dollar amount is being displayed on your San Diego gifts page if it was a part of your campaign, you do have the ability to post that offline donation so you can choose whether you want to calculate that as a part of your metrics, and you can set the start date for when you want to calculate. And you finally have the option to add a fundraising goal to your page. If you set a fundraising goal you'll have that progress bar available on your page and as you make progress towards that goal during the campaign that progress bar will count forward so it's just a nice visual display function that will allow donors to see the progress you're making towards your goal. Next section down on the page this is your story section also called the about section. This is really the meat of the page where you have the ability to tell the story of why should donors give to your organization. You're going to have inline editing here so again on page editing and you'll have a toolbar right there at the top so that you can add formatting, you know headers photos videos links. All kinds of things to hopefully make a dynamic story rather than just a standard block of text. You also have the ability to add a custom tab as well. So it's an organization that you'd like to share and make available to donors, but you don't want to distract away or make the story in that main section overwhelming for donors, because of course, donors only spend so much time reading and perusing your page so it's important to be concise as you are finding the best way to tell your story. So you have the ability to add media to your page and integrate social media. So you can upload images into an optional media gallery on your page. As I already mentioned you can, and we always recommend organizations include photos right in line in their description so this is just a place for additional images. You can also connect your Instagram account as well, and your Instagram gallery will automatically import and update as you post new things on Instagram. And you can also optimize the social share settings for your profile page so that when your link is shared on Facebook Twitter etc. you can see exactly what language is being seen in the, you know, preview sample text, and what image shows there as well so you know if you have a specific social share image that you want to use you have the opportunity to do that right in your settings. Kind of a quick view of the most important pieces of the actual profile page itself, really the key items to complete are the logo, the background image, and that story section. There are more options of course some of the other things that we just talked through, but those are the key primary items your to do list will help you walk through those. If you have anything else you have the option to add and take advantage of as you're interested. So, moving off the profile page want to step back and talk a little bit more about some of the other tools resources features available on the platform. So I've mentioned peer to peer fundraising a few times so far. Your organization can use your profile pages we've talked about to participate in San Diego gives that's the page you can customize and share, but you also have the opportunity that either your organization can create a specific fundraising page, or you can invite individual peer to peer fundraisers whether it's your board members volunteers really super close supporters, you can invite them to start peer to peer fundraisers for your organization as well. Funds that they raise as a part of their campaign will automatically be sent dispersed directly to your nonprofit. It'll all roll up into the totals that you're raising as a part of San Diego gives day so it's a really great way to ensure your organization success as a part of this day is to think about incorporating peer to peer fundraising. We'll talk a little bit more about peer to peer fundraising in our next webinar, when we dig a little deeper on strategy, but if you are planning to take advantage of that. You'll see a campaigns screen available in the fundraising section of your dashboard. This is where you can create new fundraisers, or you can manage and support and see the details of anybody who started a fundraiser for your organization. Another key item on the fundraising tools section of your dashboard is matching grants. So, I mentioned earlier matching grants are really a key part of giving days. Most, most of what makes a giving day exciting is the urgency, the reason that you're giving donors to give today as opposed to some other day in the year, and a matching grant really does the same thing so they go hand in hand. We encourage all organizations participating in San Diego gives day to find a matching donor that might be willing to support your San Diego gives campaign. It can be a board member it can be your entire board of directors collectively it can be a local company can be a corporate sponsor can be a major donor that always gives you a large gift each year, and maybe this year you dedicate that gift to be a match for San Diego gives. That matching grant does not have to be paid through the platform, completely up to you and the matching donor how they want to give that match to your organization, but you really have the option to just incorporate that into your campaign. So you can post the matching grant on your page. It will show to donors and visitors on the page. Hey, there's a $5,000 match available and there's only $1,000 left. It's going to count down as the as dollars are raised against the match so it's just, as I mentioned another way to add urgency and excited to your campaign. Lots of flexible options on the platform. You could have dollar for dollar matches one to one match. You can do a two to one match. You could also have a match that you only unlock if you receive 50 donations or 50 unique donors as a part of your San Diego gives to your campaign. For example, there's lots of flexibility and how to use matching grants. So we encourage you to take the time now to do a little bit of prospecting and see who who might be a good fit within your current list to add a matching grant to your campaign. The link on your dashboard is the reports tab. This is where you're going to be able to access all kinds of helpful reporting for your organization. All donor information for any donor that gives to your nonprofit, you will have access to. So you'll have access to in real time during the campaign. You can log in access your donations report here, you'll see on screen, quick view of some of the key information about the donors, but you can always download a full report as a CSV which will include all the detail for your donors. Name, email billing address, etc. If they added a dedication to their gift, all that information. If they add it, you will get it. Online donations report here. There's also an offline donations report. I mentioned offline earlier, but you do have the ability to add an offline gift. If you'd like to the total on your page to reflect any funds that you've raised offline as a part of San Diego gifts. There is also a recurring donations report. The donors have the ability to set up a recurring donation to your organization. If anybody does that you'll have a specific report that shows you recurring donations and geared towards helping you manage those recurring gifts over time. And finally, something that won't be super helpful this year but in future years for the San Diego gives campaign. There's also a donor retention report. Here so that next year when you're getting your campaign ready for San Diego gives and donors start coming in, you'll have a quickly accessible report that helps you see how many donors that gave last year have I already retained as a part of this year's campaign. So just something to look forward to for future years. And the last thing to note here on donations is that all administrators for your organization's account will automatically receive an email notification anytime a donation is made. So you'll receive that notification and you can also log in at any time to see the full real time report. If you want to turn off those notifications, you're welcome to do that in your user profile settings, but by default, you will be receiving those notifications. So that comes to disbursements. There are two processes to receive disbursements. The first is the recommended way and that is signing up for direct deposit which I mentioned already. If you are signed up for direct deposit, then we will batch and send donations on a twice monthly basis. So any donations received from the first to the 15th of the month will be sent on the 25th of that same month. So any donations received in the second half of the month will be sent on the 10th of the following month. So for the September 9 event, if you signed up for direct deposit, you will receive all of your funds from San Diego gives before the end of September. If you don't elect to sign up for direct deposit, you'll receive all of your funds in a check on October 10. So it's a great way to make sure that you receive your funds more quickly. You don't get lost in the mail, etc. Also, if you are electing to receive your dispersants by a check, there is a $5 paper check fee that gets added. There is no fee that gets added on the EFT disbursement. So again, we certainly recommend all organizations sign up for that EFT disbursement. When you do receive a disbursement from the platform, you will receive an email, and there will be a corresponding report in that reports screen that we're just looking at that shows you all the detail of the disbursement you received. So if you received a check for $1049.10, you will receive a disbursement report that you can download that tells you exactly what made up that amount down to the sense what donors were included, etc. You can sign up for direct deposit in the organization's settings section of your dashboard. So the next item down on the dashboard is your checkout flow. So this is where you have the opportunity to customize the experience that your donors will see when they're making their gift. Of course it is somewhat controlled in a template because as a platform we make sure that we're ensuring a really optimized mobile experience for donations, etc. So within that there are opportunities for you to customize. You can determine what data you'd like to collect. By default, of course, name, email and address will be collected but if you'd like to collect the phone number or company name, other information, you have the ability to customize that. You can also add custom donation suggestions to reinforce the impact of your mission when donors are completing their gift. So for example, you can say a $50 donation will buy food for a family of four for a week.  Whatever it might be every organization is going to have a slightly different approach to this, but it's an opportunity to encourage donors to give at recommended levels that you'd like them to give at and also provide some kind of a tangible connection to what that gift really helps your organization do. You can use to have dedications available if you'd like to select set up designations for donors to give to your welcome to do that as well, all optional. And finally you'll have the ability to preview the donation experience so just like with the profile page, you're editing within the view of what the actual donation page looks like so you'll have the ability to really have confidence in what exactly donors will see when they go to make their gift. You also have the ability to customize the thank you page, this is what donors see after they complete their donation inline free form editing you can add photos, videos, text formatting, and you can also add text to the automated receipt that gets sent to donors after they make their donation. That receipt will be sent automatically by the platform. So you don't have to send a tax receipt directly to the donors. But we encourage you to follow up with additional thank yous after the fact. But you can add specific custom language that's going to get inserted into that platform based email. The link down on dashboard is your settings. So this is where you can add and remove admins to your account so whoever submitted the application for your organization, you should already be an administrator for your nonprofits account, but you can add other admins at your organization. If you want to add a board member your executive director your social media person, whoever you need to add, you're welcome to add other people from your team. You can also remove admins if there's somebody that leaves your organization and you don't want them to have access to your page anymore you have the ability to remove those. This is also the place that you can update your organization's legal name and legal address. I know that I've already spoken to at least a couple of organizations that have needed to do this needed to do this for their profile. We integrate with or we import from the IRS database on a monthly basis so we do our best to make sure that the legal name and legal address is up to date with what is on file with the IRS. But sometimes if organizations have changed their information over the years, you may need to come in and update your legal name or legal address. You can do that through the organization info tab here on the settings page. If you are changing your organization's name or address to something that is not on file with the IRS, then you'll have to provide documentation to let us know. Let us know about that name change or address change and and then our customer support team will review and approve it and hopefully make those changes for you on your page. This is also as I mentioned where you can sign up for direct deposit disbursement, customize the social share experience that we talked about earlier. And finally, you'll have the option to upgrade to our advanced plan or start a free trial of advanced. And so just to give you a little bit more information about advanced on mighty cause. The first thing I will say is you absolutely don't have to do this to participate in San Diego gives to have a great campaign. You do not need to upgrade to this subscription this is an option. All the tools that we've covered so far, your profile page peer to peer fundraising matching grant those are all included as a part of the platform so you're welcome to take use of any of those, but we do have some advanced features that we have built out that are available. If you'd like to upgrade and we have a monthly or annual subscription options available. Some of the most exciting tools that you have access to on mighty cause advanced are integrations with a number of external platforms from Salesforce to Mailchimp to Slack to Google analytics and hundreds more through third party tool called Zapier, which has over 200,000 applications available. So, lots of integrations available to help streamline your fundraising streamline your data management post San Diego gives day. You can create a text to give keyword for your campaign if you'd like, we have embeddable donation form that you can put on your website that's something that you might take more advantage of outside of the San Diego gives campaign but it is available. We have our own built in supporter CRM tool so for organizations that don't yet have their own CRM or just using spreadsheets, Excel or Google spreadsheets to manage donors, we do have a built in CRM tool in our platform. We also have volunteer management and other features available so again totally optional, you have all that you need to have a great campaign without upgrading, but for any organizations that are interested in some of these features that I've mentioned, you have the ability to upgrade to advanced just for the length of time, a month if you'd like to participate in San Diego gives. And if you are interested you can access that information in your settings, you can start a free trial and or sign up right from there. So, we've covered the profile we've covered your dashboard where you can access all the key information, and just a couple key things to remind you of before we turn to q amp a. The first is the nonprofit toolkit I've mentioned the toolkit already. This is available on the San Diego gives.org website. There's a very helpful toolkit there is social media and email templates available for you logo that you can download for San Diego gives, you'll be able to access today's recording on that toolkit. You can sign up for the next webinar, as well as the meet and greet session that Lauren mentioned. So make sure that you check out the nonprofit toolkit and take advantage of all the resources that are there for you. And also see how to access mighty cost customer support. And some key tips and tricks for using the platform. So, mighty cost support as I've mentioned is here to help you. We are the technical fundraising platform provider. So you can email us at support at mighty cause calm to get help. We also have a self help center support dot mighty cost calm. We have tons of articles there video walkthroughs how to use lots of great information there. And you'll see that's actually integrated into the platform on any page throughout your organization's dashboard you'll see a little great question mark icon in the bottom right corner of your page clicking on that icon. So open up our support center, you can search what articles we have if you're looking for more information on how to post a matching grant, etc. You can search that and then if you need to, you'll also have the ability to contact our customer support team through there. Typically we are Monday to Friday nine to five but of course for the giving day, we will be here for 24 hours to support the 24 hours of giving that will be going on. So the second webinar as I mentioned already, this will happen Wednesday, August 4 will really focus primarily on strategy in this webinar so we'll go over some of the basics again as a quick refresher but we'll focus on peer to peer fundraising strategy, how to secure a matching some communications tips, etc. So make sure to mark your calendars go to the toolkit to sign up and register for that next webinar, and we'll hope to see you there. And with that, I will see if we've had any questions come in. If you haven't posted your question yet you can feel free to type into that Q&A with any questions that you do have. Great. First question, multiple people can have their own login. Yes, absolutely. You five, six, 10 people from your nonprofit if you need to can have their own account. And they can all have their own login if you'd like to create one, you know, info at urban for dot org for example. You can have your entire team share a login you're welcome to do that but you don't need to everyone can have their own login. Is the background image what appears to be a cover photo or is there an additional section for the background, the background image is going to be that kind of long narrow image at the very top of your profile page. But we'll sit right behind that logo. First image people see when they land on your page. So hopefully that helps. And the last question here about checks, if we opt for paper checks when are they sent each month. So if you opt to receive donations by check. The donations that you your organization receives in the month of September will all be sent to your organization on October 10 so we batch for the whole month. And immediately the month following, you'll receive the donations around the 10th of the following month. And the last question here that just came in, can you post video clips. Absolutely, right on your profile page in that main story section where you can add text formatting photos you can add videos. You can even embed the link to a live stream from Facebook. If you happen to be doing that as a part of your San Diego Gibbs campaign, but you can absolutely add video there. It looks like we've answered all the questions that we have for now. So we will end today's recording. Now, if you do have questions that pop up after today's webinar you can either email info at San Diego Gibbs dot org. If your question is more about the campaign as a whole or local efforts that are going on to support it. If your questions really more about how to use the platform how to make something happen on your page. You can email us at support at mighty cause calm. Again, we will post this recording up on the nonprofit toolkit later today. Thanks so much for joining us today everyone. We're looking forward to being a part of the San Diego Gibbs campaign in September. Thank you.


it's therefore now time for question period the leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition. Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Premier. Today we are joined by correctional officers and staff from around the province. They are here to tell you about the growing crisis in corrections. A crisis that this government continues to ignore. The poor quality of Ontario's jails and their persistent lockdowns are putting correctional officers' lives at risk. We've already had an officer taken hostage at the Thunder Bay jail and the government's response was minimal. Mr. Speaker, how many more correctional officers have to be injured? How many more correctional officers have to be taken hostage before we see serious action from this government? Thank you very much Mr. Speaker. First of all I want to welcome the officers to the legislature today and I know that the Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services is going to want to say more Mr. Speaker. We're committed to transformation in corrections in Ontario. It is what we believe in Mr. Speaker. It's why we're hiring more officers. Since 2013 we've hired 710 new correctional officers. We'll be hiring 2,000 more correctional officers over the next three years. We understand that there is a need for more personnel. We also understand that there is a need for support for training and we've trained an additional 138 new correctional officers. Those trainings are underway Mr. Speaker. But beyond that we recognize that there is a need for an overall look at how we approach corrections in this province and that is underway Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, back to the Premier. I remind the Premier of my visit to the Thunder Bay Correctional Facility. I could not believe the working conditions could exist in Ontario like I saw at the Thunder Bay Jail. The Mayor of Thunder Bay called it a rat hole. The infrastructure in our correctional facilities and many parts of the province are completely inadequate. I'm sure the Premier would never work in these conditions that I saw and so I repeat for the third time my challenge and question to the Premier. As I've done before I'm asking the Premier, Mr. Speaker, will the Premier visit the Jail and Thunder Bay, the Correctional Facility Thunder Bay to truly appreciate the conditions and if Thunder Bay is too far, will the Premier visit any Correctional Facility? Because it's not good enough to say you went four or five years ago for ribbing cutting. Will you see the conditions today? Yes or no? Thank you. Premier? Mr. Speaker, the reason that the transformation is underway, the reason officers are being hired, the reason that in the Minister's mandate letter there is a focus on transformation in corrections is that I have already visited, Mr. Speaker. I understand that there is a real need for change in corrections, Mr. Speaker. I also recognize that in this country, Mr. Speaker, provincial jurisdictions are working under challenging circumstances given decisions that were made at the federal level, Mr. Speaker. We need to focus on how we prepare people who are in our corrections institutions for reintegration into society, Mr. Speaker. We need to make sure that the conditions that corrections offices are working in are safe, Mr. Speaker. That's why the transformation is the focus of the Minister and that's why the transformation is underway. Mr. Speaker, back to the Premier. A visit years and years ago isn't good enough, and I repeat my challenge. Will the Premier visit a correctional facility in the near future? Now, there's a simple first step, a first step solution that I could recommend to the Premier. The body scanners in the Toronto South Detention Centre should be in every correctional facility in Ontario immediately. You know, Mr. Speaker, during my visit to the Elgin Middle Six Detention Centre, I was told from a correctional officer that the smuggling of drugs is rampant. 17 kinder eggs from one inmate full of drugs. I've heard in other correctional facilities about ceramic knives being smuggled in. Smokey Thomas has called on the government to take a task force beyond just Ottawa but for the whole province. This is a reasonable proposition that the government should follow. And so my question, Mr. Speaker, is will the government take real meaningful steps like setting up a task force, like having these body scanners not next year but immediately? Will you do the right things? Will you take these steps this spring? Thank you. May we say correctional services? Proceed it, please. Proceed it, please. Thank you. The Premier referred to the Minister of Correctional Services. Thank you very much, Speaker. Sikar, on this side of the House, we've been very absolutely being clear on this issue that the status quo in our correctional system cannot continue. And we are very much focused on working along with our correctional partners and the fact that they're here and the fact that we've actually been having very productive meetings demonstrates that we are focused on developing solutions. And Speaker, let me be very clear, our solutions are not what the leader of the opposition, when he sat along with the Harper government and brought on dumb and crime policies that has resulted in the kind of challenges and overcrowding that we're seeing. That is not the solution, Speaker, that we're talking about. Neither we are talking about the solutions that the Conservatives brought by privatizing jails in this province, Speaker. Those are not the solutions we are talking about. I invite the member opposite. Stop the rhetoric and start talking about concrete solutions that is going to result in ensuring... Thank you. New question. The leader of the opposition. Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Premier. When the Premier was scribbling her new plan on the back of a napkin at her kitchen table, there was one glittering omission. And I appreciate that the Premier has no interest in input or consultation with other parties or... Start the clock. Start the clock. It's very difficult to ask one side to come to order when the other side is provoking. So if you were to stop, I would be able to do something about it. Please finish your question. Mr. Speaker, I realize input is not welcome. It's the Liberal Party's way. It's the Premier's way or the highway. But one glaring omission is about lobbying reform. Over the last 13 years, there has been a steady stream of staff leaving the Premier's and Minister's offices to become influential lobbyists. Lobbyists who in turn wrote big checks to the Liberal Party from their new employers. Although she claims that the Premier will put a stop to the donations, it doesn't solve all the problems. It's inadequate. It's short. Mr. Speaker, when the cash dries up, what is the question of Liberal friends from influencing the government's decisions? Opposition knows that we have made changes in terms of the rules surrounding lobbyists. And one of the questions that we have before us is are there other changes that need to be made, Mr. Speaker? I would be happy to hear from the Leader of the Opposition. Member from Leeds, Randall. He has proposals on how he thinks the lobbying process should be changed. But, Mr. Speaker, we have made changes. We have tightened up those rules. Be happy to hear any input that he has on that. Member from Leeds, Randall. Second time. Supplementary. Mr. Speaker, maybe the Premier forgot the page of her napkin on her kitchen table. And I understand that lobbying is legitimate. But a simple cooling-off period between leaving a Minister's office and working as a lobbyist makes sense. That's the standard practice in other provinces. I guess maybe my signaling that I'm going after individuals hasn't come through yet, but I reverse my politeness to a heavy hand. I don't care to do it, but I will. Please. Mr. Speaker, it appears I've touched a sensitive topic of defending liberal lobbyists. We can't have senior staff advising the Premier today and then lobbying for policy changes tomorrow. There has to be a cooling-off period. Mr. Speaker, if the Premier's reform plan is so comprehensive, why is she being so silent on changing the lobbying rules in our province? Why leave these giant loopholes in the reform? Thank you. I had with the leaders of the opposition parties, I said to them that I was interested in hearing from them on specific changes that they thought needed to be put in place. Premier. I specifically had the meeting in order to administer that. I still stand ready to hear their input on the substance of what they think should be in the legislation. We will bring in two pieces of legislation. As I told them, we'll bring in the legislation in the spring around the fundraising rules, but then in the fall, Mr. Speaker, we will bring in another piece of legislation that will deal with other elections. I'm open to their suggestions, Mr. Speaker, and I have said that there may be changes to the lobbying process that need to be put in place. I'd be happy to hear their concrete suggestions. Thank you. Mr. Speaker, the notion that input is welcome is laughable. The only direction we got from the Premier is that this process would be dictated by the Premier's office, run by the Liberal Party, and the opinions of everyone else doesn't count with this government. Now, I can tell you there are numerous examples of why we need to address lobbying reform. A senior staffer leaves the Energy Minister's office only to take a job with a renewable energy company, seeking project approval from that same minister. During that time, he personally donates to the Liberal Party 194 times. It doesn't look right to the people of Ontario. It isn't right. They want rules. The people of Ontario want rules to be put into place to protect the public's interests. Mr. Speaker, will the Premier commit to a lobbying cooling off period for former government staff? Yes or no? Do you support that concept? Thank you. The member from Stormont has done this. Glenn Gary. No. You come to order. Premier. Amen. So I think it's time that the people of Ontario actually stood where the Leader of the Opposition stands. So do you support a ban on corporate donations? Yes or no? Order, please. To the chair. I'm not kidding. Finish, please. Does the Leader of the Opposition support a ban on union donations? Yes or no? Does the Leader of the Opposition support controls on third party advertising? Yes or no? Does the Leader of the Opposition believe that we need to reduce the maximum? Yes or no? I'm charged with trying to make sure that the mood is reasonable. It's not helpful when, even if you're attempting to use third person, you point at someone and point. You're speaking to the chair. Point at me. So Speaker, I'd like to know if the Leader of the Opposition supports constraints on loans and loan guarantees. Yes or no? Just when I'm able to get that directed, it starts on this side. You're not helpful either. Please finish, Rappel. Does the Leader of the Opposition believe that we need to refer to third party donations? Yes or no? Let's get on with it. Thank you. No question, the Leader of the Third Party. Thank you, Speaker. My question is for the Premier. Jails in Ontario are overcrowded and understaffed. They're not enough correction workers. It's not hard to see that this is a recipe for jails and a system that are unsafe for everyone. Riots and violence and even deaths have become the norm under this Liberal Government's watch. But when it comes to the new PTSD legislation, the Premier left out bailiffs and probation and parole officers, even though all correction workers are doing their best in a system that is unsafe for them and inmates. When will corrections workers and inmates actually see safe jails in this province? Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. Again, I say to the corrections officers, I'm pleased that they're here. I assume that the Leader of the Third Party would agree with our move to hire 710 new correctional officers and 2,000 more over the next three years, Mr Speaker, because we agree that there needs to be change in our correction system. It's why the Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services is working on a transformation. And as he said, we are working on supports like mental health supports, Mr Speaker, making sure that there is training, making sure that there's more staff so that the environment is safer, so that corrections officers have a better environment within which to work. And that will work to rehabilitate people so that they can be reintegrated into society. That has not been the focus, Mr Speaker, certainly from the federal level. That has not been the focus of corrections in this country. It is the focus of this government, Mr Speaker, and that's the direction that the transformation is moving in. Well, Speaker, everybody sees the transformation that's happening in the correction system. It speaks volumes when the Premier's Minister talks about what's going on in jails, not even the one in his own community, Speaker. Not only was he completely unaware, but he went on to deny the fact that inmates are forced to sleep in showers in the Ottawa Detention Centre. Not only is this inhumane, of course, but it creates an even more dangerous work environment for the corrections officers and workers in the facility. After admitting that he was wrong, the Minister then promised that the inmates would no longer be sleeping in shower stalls anymore. Has the government fixed Ottawa's overcrowding, Speaker? Where did all those inmates go? Please take community safety measures. Please take community safety measures. Well, thank you very much, Speaker. Speaker, on this side of the House, we are very much focused on working along with our correctional workers and making sure that we are bringing meaningful changes. Last year, Speaker, was a challenging year in terms of ensuring that there was no strike, that we were able to reach an agreement that all parties are satisfied with. But now, most importantly, working together in ensuring that we can come up with a concrete action plan as to how we change the system. What we really need to do, Speaker, from all members of this House, is to come up with those ideas. It's easy to point to the problem, Speaker. We all know what the challenges in the system are. Our real opportunity, Speaker, which is in front of us, is to come up with those long-lasting transformational changes that will ensure that we focus on rehabilitation and reintegration as opposed to just punishing. Well, Speaker, instead of actually dealing with systemic issues, what we see is things flaring up in London, in Hamilton, in Thunder Bay, Toronto South, the Liberals chose to put their focus on taking our correction systems to the brink. This government spent millions of dollars getting ready for a strike instead of investing in solutions to fix the problems regarding this made in Ontario crisis. They made this crisis, and it is on their hands, and that is bigger than just one ministry, Speaker, because, for example, the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care cut psychiatric beds and mental health support. Minister of Agriculture, come to order. Please finish. And those vulnerable individuals often find their way into our justice and correction system, Speaker. Will the Premier acknowledge that when she's cutting healthcare, cutting education, cutting social services, cutting public housing, she's creating brand new problems and corrections? Minister? Thank you. Minister? Well, I think, Speaker, this bluster undermines the good faith and goodwill that exists, Speaker, within our correction system for the first time in a long, long time. Finish, please. Speaker, we have a good will and good working relationship for the first time in a long time within the correctional system from all our partners, including community partners, to actually move forward and develop a concrete action plan that will change the system. Speaker, warehousing more individuals in the correction system is not the answer. What we need to really focus on is how do we better rehabilitate and reintegrate individuals back in the community? We have a lot of work to do to undermine the 10 years of damage that the Harper government and the leader of the opposition brought into our system and to ensure... New question. Thank you, Speaker. My next question is also for the Premier. Does the Premier believe, Speaker, that to rules governing democratic fairness may fairly and democratically or does she believe that one person and one party should be making all the rules? Thank you. Here's the process that we are we're putting forward. We will introduce draft legislation. We'll introduce legislation in the spring, Mr. Speaker. And then that legislation instead of going to committee hearings after second reading, we'll actually go to committee hearings after first reading and get agreement, Mr. Speaker. And that will allow for two rounds of consultation with people across the province. We will be able to have consultation and input throughout the summer and into the fall, Mr. Speaker. I look forward to that. There are many issues that... many of the issues that I raised with the leaders of the opposition parties and with the leader of the Green Party hoping for input. I did get some input from the leader of the Green Party, Mr. Speaker. Looking for some input from the opposition leaders. Mr. Speaker, I'm looking for input from people across the province, from experts, from academics, from members of civil society. All those people that the leader of the third party thinks we should hear from. We're looking forward to that input, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when Mike Harris arbitrarily changed election rules in 1998, the member for St. Catherine said it was a, quote, anti-democratic strategy hatched in the back rooms, end quote. Dalton McGinty said, quote, without the consent of all the players involved, end quote. Can the Premier explain why it's anti-democratic if Mike Harris does it, but if Liberals do it, it's nonpartisan and consultative? Thank you. Deputy Premier. So, Speaker, I understand that the leader of the third party is preoccupied with the process on this side of the House. We want to get on with making the changes. Thank you to the leader of the third party. Do you support, does she support the ban on union donations? So I need people to let her out of order. That's a yes or no question. Another yes or no question. Does the leader of the opposition support a ban on corporate donations? Yes or no? What about third party advertising rules? How about maximum spending limits on third party advertising? Yes or no, Speaker? Do we need to reduce the maximum donation, Speaker? We want an answer from the leader of the third party. Does she support it or does she not support it? For restrictions and rules around loans and loan guarantees. Speaker, the people of this province wanted to get on with it and so do we. Thank you. Final supplementary. Speaker, the Liberals conveniently pretend not to get it. We need to get the big money out of politics, obviously. It's time to ban those corporate and union donations for sure. But we need to get there with a modicum of credibility, Speaker. Last time in the Premier's office does not pass the smell tag. It is an undemocratic process hatched in the back rooms. Will this Premier commit to an open democratic process that involves all the major political parties, civil society, academics and non-partisan experts? On this side, we think it's time to move forward with changes. A reduction in overall spending limits in election periods and between election Speaker. Yes or no? Does the leader of the third party believe that we need new leadership and nomination campaign spending limits and information rules? Yes or no? Speaker, the time has come to move on with it. We have a perfectly democratic process through this legislature where we're determined we're going to get lots of input in a timely manner because we want this work to be done. Thank you. Thank you. My questions to the Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services. Over the past few weeks they were shocked to learn that inmates were being housed in showers at the Ottawa Carlton Detention Center. What's even more shocking is that the minister had to backtrack after he had denied that such conditions existed. The Community Advisory Report that the ministry sat on for months last year directly called on the minister to address overcrowding in the jail. Speaker, why did the minister ignore all evidence for so long that Ontario Correctional System is in crisis and it's leading to chaos in corrections? Let me be absolutely clear it is totally unacceptable to house any inmate in any shower cell. As soon as I found out that practice have taken place I issued a directive to ensure that practice is permanently put to end. In addition, in order to deal with some of the challenges that are taking place at the Ottawa Carlton Detention Center I have created a task force which is being led by my Deputy Minister the task force had his first meeting just yesterday. It has of course members from my ministry but in nation speaker it also has representation it has community members such as from Elizabeth Fry society and the mothers offering mutual support a group members from the community advisory board in addition speaker the crown and defense council so that we can work together speaker and create both near term and long term solutions. Thank you Minister, the pluggable conditions just don't appear overnight the crisis and corrections may have been avoided if government officials simply listened to the pleas for help coming from the front lines. When I raised the question about safety issues at the Toronto Self Detention Center staff were immediately issued a warning memo on confidentiality and speaker that's unacceptable. Safety concerns raised by front line staff throughout Ontario must be welcomed and encouraged. Instead we have a government that has tried unsuccessfully to muzzle the staff so speaker my question is simply this will the minister show leadership and apologize on behalf of his ministry for trying to silence correctional staff who tried desperately to get this question to address safety concerns. Speaker as I said earlier we are very much interested in developing solutions together and I sincerely speaker sincerely ask the member opposite he intends well to provide solutions. Let's work together to deal with this very complex problem in a manner that brings everybody together. Speaker his solution is as his party has suggested in the past to privatize jail we absolutely reject that notion speaker that is not where we're going to go we need to work together along with our correctional workers to find meaningful ways not only to reduce speaker routing in our jails by reforming the bail system and the federal government has a very important role to play but also in making sure that we've got appropriate support within our correctional institutions but also in our community setting by benefiting from the expertise of our probation and parole officers so that we can ensure better integration. Speaker we welcome ideas and solutions let's work together and make it happen. Thank you. Thank you very much Mr. Speaker I would like to ask to the Premier the Premier wrote her plan for how all elections will be financed by herself at home two days before she met with the opposition members it's not clear she even consulted with her own caucus she hasn't consulted with experts she hasn't consulted with civil society and she certainly hasn't listened to Ontarians why is she stubbornly refusing a process that includes all major political parties civil society and nonpartisan experts and instead choosing to go it alone. I've known the member for Kitchener Waterloo for a very long time she used to be a school community advisor with the Toronto Board of Education I know she worked in community very well and I know that she understands how process works I know she understands that when there are important decisions to be made everybody needs to do their work everybody needs to look at the options everybody needs to come forward with the synthesis of the ideas that they have looked at and then to sound those out with other people and then come up with a solution Mr. Speaker and so I'm really surprised that this member who understands that so well wouldn't understand that we all have to do this work every one of us who wants to have input into this process has to think about what the options are Mr. Speaker has to consider those options and then has to enter into a broader process that's what we're doing Mr. Speaker we're going to bring legislation forward we're expanding the consultation period we want to hear input from people around the province Mr. Speaker and we would love to hear with Peter please Peter please just when I was ready to admonish supplementary thank you let's remember in the 2016 budget that the premier established a number of new panels in the past this premier created panels on how many bottles of beer someone can buy and where they can buy them the word consultation appears in the 2016 budget more than 50 times clearly the problem isn't that the premier refuses to hold consultations or conversations or doesn't like independent panels she needs to remember that our democracy belongs to all of us not the Liberal Party why she thinks she alone should be making the rules for our democracy functions and why she is stubbornly refusing an open transparent consultation by establishing a fast movement moving independent panel on election fairness do you think that there should be a democratic process and I think that having the legislative process putting the legislative process in place on is the democratic process Mr. Speaker it is exactly the democratic process that we're proposing be used and I think the third party by suggesting that the process in this legislation to put policy forward is not democratic is a pretty outrageous statement Mr. Speaker I think that the third party doesn't want to talk about the substance I think that the third party wants to talk about process because they don't want to talk about the substance because they want to delay Mr. Speaker I want to make sure that we have a process in place that allows us to move January 1st 2017 to have those rules in place I think the third party wants to delay beyond that we're not going to do that Mr. Speaker please Thank you the member from York Southwest Thank you Mr. Speaker my question is for the Minister of Education the Child Care and Early Years Act provides a new legislative framework to increase access and oversight in Ontario's childcare sector it is important for our government to give children the best possible start in life I was surprised to hear the concerns from my constituents about changes to ratios and regulations that would impact families constituents in my writing of York Southwest are raising concerns about the proposed changes to the childcare regulations Speaker through you to the Minister could she please tell us and tell everyone in this House what our government is looking to address these concerns Thank you Minister of Education Yes thank you and thank you to the member for York Southwest and for the question the proposed regulatory changes were posted for public feedback from February 1st to April 1st of this year during this period we engaged with families and stakeholders and did receive extensive feedback on the proposed regulations I want to assure you that we have heard the concerns raised and I want to be clear that the regulations as posted will not be implemented we will be taking another look at some of the proposed regulations and we'll be engaging with our sector the childcare sector on a plan moving forward that makes changes to reflect the concerns that have been voiced so we will continue to consult and revisit what changes need to be made in the future Well thank you Speaker and thank you to the Minister for her answer it is reassuring to hear that the concerns of my constituents in York Southwest are being taken seriously I know how important it is for our government to continue to provide high quality and safe childcare I'm well aware that our government wants to ensure that we are increasing access to childcare across Ontario could the Minister through you tell us how else our government will continue to modernize Ontario's childcare and early years system and how can we ensure that the concerns of my constituents and other families in Ontario continue to be heard Thank you Yes and thank you Speaker since 2003 our government has doubled childcare funding to more than $1 billion annually the number of licensed childcare spaces in Ontario has grown to nearly 351,000 spaces an increase of 87% in the number of licensed spaces we're also creating 4,000 new childcare spaces as a result of $120 million capital investment over three years to construct new childcare spaces in new schools but I do want to be clear the regulation on the ratios as posted will not be implemented changes will be made and we will ensure that there are options for parents we have heard the concerns that have been raised and we will work with the sector to find a solution Thank you My question is to the Minister of the Environment and Climate Change on July 28, 2015 WPD Canada filed a court application about its proposed project to build eight 500 foot high wind turbines near the Collingwood airport they wanted the court to force the Ministry of Environment to make a decision on their project WPD had gotten tired of waiting on September 22 they filed a notice with the court saying it attended to fight the application two days later on September 24 the Ontario Liberal Party deposited a donation from WPD in the amount of $6,000 the court application never went ahead and the Ministry approved the project in February of this year will the Minister tell us why the Liberal Party was accepting donations from WPD while it was fighting the company in court Minister of the Environment and Climate Change Thank you Mr. Speaker let's just first break this down the process involved in this involves a directors level decision which I do not and cannot interfere with and as I said to the member from Prince Edward Hastings it's our job to protect the integrity of the system it then goes to the Environmental Review Tribunal finish please so it's fairly clear and transparent process second Mr. Speaker we have some of the strongest fundraising rules in Canada across this country and I've said this before Mr. Speaker I know all 107 members of this House reasonably well I know them to be honourable people who are decent people who came here to be honest to work with integrity and serve their people and to suggest otherwise it's just really really really low thank you some of the comments I heard were not I wish I could assign them to somebody because I would supplementary back to the Minister that's $6000 the largest single donation to the WPD had ever given to the Liberal Party in March of 2014 for an updated report on their wind turbine application that same month WPD donated $3000 to the Liberal Party their second largest donation two months later in May WPD submitted that updated report to the Ministry and that same month WPD donated a further $2000 to the Liberal Party third largest donation every time it looked like the project was in jeopardy a donation was made to the Liberal Party of Ontario these facts Mr. Speaker only reinforced the need for a public inquiry does the Minister seriously expect the people in my writing to believe that these donations had absolutely nothing to do with his approval of the WPD there's some very large temptations to speak while I'm standing and while I've gotten people's attention and it's going to stop Minister the short answer is yes Mr. Speaker and the second part of this let's go back to the process of the member who's a former Minister of the Environment knows how bulletproof these processes are MOECC conducting one of its most comprehensive reviews to ensure WDP WDP's proposal would meet our stranger requirements the Ontario Renewable Energy Approval Process ensures extensive consultation take place with the public Aboriginal groups and local governments in a six month review over two years been considered 350 public and agency submissions Mr. Speaker and finally again at the point I made earlier that these decisions are made by public officials and Mr. Speaker to be very clear about this I've been in public life municipally and provincially I've conducted myself to a very high personal standard and I know the member officer Mr. Speaker I know him to be as a person of great character and I know him to be as a minister before and I hope he's... Thank you for all members to the chair New question, the member from Nickel Belt Thank you Mr. President My question is for the Premier Advocate for public health care released a new report this morning called Ontario's Hospitals Caught Beyond All Limits I think the title says it all It lays out in staking details the full extent of their liberal cuts to Ontario Hospital The work of the Ontario Health Coalition confirms what patients are seeing across our province under these Premier's Watch the crisis of cuts inside a hospital is getting worse Hundreds of nurses and frontline hospital workers laid off hospital beds closed and rural community forced to fight just to keep the doors open and the lights on in their own local hospital People want to know why is this Premier so determined to keep cutting hospital care Thank you Mr. Speaker What I'm determined to do is to build up our health care system to make sure that our health care system serves the people of this province with the right health care in a timely way where they need it so we have to look at the whole health care system and hospitals are a very very important part of that which is why there's $345 million more of new money in this year's budget for the hospital sector Mr. Speaker but beyond that there is a billion dollars Mr. Speaker more money new money that we're putting into into health care into the whole system and again I know that the member of the third party understands that the health care system is it's under transition there's no about that it's changing the way health care is being delivered is changing there are community services available now that we're not available in the past and there's more of that that is necessary Mr. Speaker so we do have to look at the system as a whole The Premier likes to deny that any hospital cuts are happening under her watch but the Premier is fooling no one patient family frontline hospital workers and administrator as well as local health coalition we all see right through the Liberals talking points St. Joseph health centre in London says that they have seen almost $36.5 million cut over the last four years under this Liberal government and all those cuts means bed closure longer wait time for patient and fewer frontline nurses and health care workers when services are cuts in our hospital they get privatised in the community they are not available they have no oversight it begs the question why is this hospital putting this Premier putting hospital in the terrible position of making decisions based on dollars and deficit rather than the best for patients and their family I would say back to the member of the third party why is she not talking about the whole health care system why is she not talking about the way health care delivery is changing I would think she would understand that people who are in the community who need care want that care in their homes they want it through community delivery services as opposed to putting all of that onus on the hospital and Mr. Speaker I think that given the heckling that is coming from the third party right now they actually recognise you can hide but I can still catch it the fact that since 2003 there are 5600 more doctors in the system finish please thank you very much Mr. Speaker we have paramedics who are in the legislature I think they recognise that there are changes happening in the system that are necessary in order for us to deliver 21st century health care new question member from Trinity Spadina thank you Mr. Speaker of tourism culture and sports over the past few weeks we have seen bill 100 the supporting Ontario's trail act repeatedly criticised by the opposition parties based on misconceptions related to the trail easements numerous times the minister has said that an easement person to bill 100 if passed will be a voluntary agreement between a landlord and an eligible body or bodies Mr. Don McCabe a president has said that bill 100 does not encroach on the freedom of individual land owners Mr. Speaker through you to the minister can he tell this house more about the trail easements thank you thank you Mr. Chair thank you Mr. Speaker I want to thank the member from Trinity Spadina for the question trails easements under bill 100 are voluntary and will not alter existing land and it surprises me that many of the members opposite Mr. Speaker have gone on record saying that this is actually a threat to trails here in the province of Ontario but yet our stakeholders have repeatedly told this government that bill 100 is a wonderful bill the Niagara and Scarpman commission the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters have said they are fully supportive of this bill Bruce trail has told us trail easements are a very useful tool that will cut years of bureaucratic red tape this is just another example of the progressive conservatives being out of touch with the people of Ontario and I hope the opposition will get on site to support bill 100 don't waste it supplementary thank you Mr. Speaker and I want to thank the minister for clarifying this issue I cannot stress enough how important bill 100 is to Ontario Mr. Speaker trail tourism contributes $1.4 billion to our economy each year that number includes over $800 million in labour income which supports an estimated 18,000 jobs across the province bill 100 is intended to grow the trail sector by connecting and expanding trails across the province including the economic benefit for local community such as mine in Tunis Padina there have been questions on whether we did enough consultations on bill 100 through you to the minister could the minister tell us the member of this house how we consulted on bill 100 thank you minister thank you very much Mr. Speaker and again I want to thank the member for Trinity Spadina for the question I know he's a huge supporter of trails here in the province of Ontario in fact the bill Davis trail recently opened up in Trinity Spadina Mr. Speaker bill 100 our ministry held broad in-person consultations right across the entire province we engage with groups like the eastern Ontario trails alliance Simcoe county trails the Ontario federation of snowmobile clubs the bruce trail conservancy the Ontario native women's association the Ontario federation of agriculture we consulted with many municipalities with indigenous groups with land owners trail organisations from all across in fact Mr. Speaker we consulted with over 250 different groups here in Ontario I think our government sent an excellent job at member from Prince Edward Hastings second time new question the minister of agriculture, food and rural affairs yesterday Ontario gaming east announced it would be relocating the slots at Cortha downs in my riding to Peterborough and building a new casino the township of Kevin Monaghan will lose 3 million in annual slot revenues to fix roads and bridges which will only continue to strain the small budget of my municipality you know this government loves to talk about infrastructure yet now that my township is faced with losing significant slot revenues this government won't bat an eye speaker will the minister tell my municipality where they are supposed to find the 3 million that his government has now ripped out of their budget Mr. Speaker I want to thank the member from Halliburke Court of Lakes Brock for a question this morning but let me give the member a little history member from Kitchener Waterloo will come to order minister let me give the member a little history lesson I remember when I was a city council in Peterborough in 1997 we had started talks with annexation with that municipality to offer financial support as that process moved forward well I'm not a member of city council today I understand in conversations with the mayor of Peterborough Daryl Bennett that there's been ongoing talks with that municipality regarding annexation proposals even though I'm not party to discussions I'm told that the city of Peterborough has made very generous officer to that municipality for their future questions have been going on but my discussion is that the OLG and the government have repeatedly said they were committed to the longer term sustainability of the horse racing industry you said that well Corp of Downs had 100 races it now has 18 but the loss of the slots is going to ultimately close Corp of Downs and the horse racing will be gone so in 2013 the very minister said that he had a plan to maintain a share of slot revenues to support the horse racing industry yesterday's announcement shows the minister has no plan so Mr. Speaker, were the bright lights an allure of a shiny new casino and he is riding just too hard for the minister to resist Mr. Speaker the member should do her homework she should sit down with the Minnesota representatives of Cavendon again to find out the generous offer that the city of Peterborough put on the table for that municipality to sustain their finances for the future to come when it comes to horse racing Mr. Speaker the only time that member ever showed up in Corp of Downs was when they thought they were going to close it I want to actually hurt my ear hurt yours too just saying the minister has one sentence very much Mr. Speaker the fact of the matter is John Snowblood Albert Buchanan and John Wilkinson put forward a pot for sustainable horse racing the province of Inter it was never supported member from Hamilton East Tony Creek thank you Speaker my question is to the Premier today I'm asking the Premier to do the math I'm asking her to estimate the minimum monthly income needed for a single person to live a healthy dignified life in our province in her estimation what is the bare minimum needed to afford the basics like nutritious food safe and decent housing and clothing to have access to transportation a telephone what does it cost for a single person to live in places like Timmins or Hamilton or Attawapiskat or right in her own riding of Don Valley West how much does the Premier imagine this cost thank you and your community and social services thank you very much Mr Speaker and to the member from Hamilton East Tony Creek for his interest in social assistance I really welcome this and of course we will be debating his private members bill tomorrow and I look forward to having 50 minutes in this House to talk about the most vulnerable in our society of course as the member has referenced rates are extremely important and this is why of course we have been working constantly over the last number of years and in this year's budget we really did take the unprecedented step of saying that there would no longer be a clawback of child support pains intend Mr Speaker to take a very comprehensive look at social assistance reform in a way it's a whole of government way of looking at how we can support looking at employment incentives training a number of different areas supplementary thank you Speaker with all due respect unfortunately it's no surprise that the Premier can't give me an estimate government simply does not understand the daily challenges faced by people trying to pay the bills in Ontario it's time to do the math during this government's time in office the poorest people in Ontario got poorer food banks are overflowing people on social assistance programs including people with chronic disabilities unable to participate in the labour market have less real income today than they had under Mike Harris new democrats believe that governments must make evidence based public policy we believe that we need a social assistance benefits that actually reflect the real costs of living will the Premier take the politics out of social assistance will the Premier commit to ensuring social assistance policy is based in evidence thank you thank you Mr Speaker and it is really refreshing to hear from the new new democratic party their interest in these important matters I seem to recall the 2014 election platform you will recall the nine pages never once mentioned the most vulnerable in our society increasing of the minimum wage we haven't seen support for the child benefit in all the aspects that we have taken all the initiatives that we've taken to improve the lives of the most vulnerable in our society and also to address again the way we are going to address this very important issue is that we're going to look across the spectrum of supports for people and social assistance in fact in this budget we also saw the free tuition we're going to look at health benefits we're going to look at housing we have some very important initiatives that this government has introduced and we will continue in this way minister of Aboriginal Affairs come to order start the clock member from Cambridge my question is for the minister of education minister and looking around this place today we all recognize the International Pink a day where we recognize anti-bullying initiative that began in Nova Scotia after a grade nine student was bullied in his school for wearing pink two students who witnessed the incident spot pink shirts to stand united with the student against bullying now many schools run events on the day of pink including in my riding of Cambridge and Waterloo region when my son Liam was co-president his friends had their fingernails and painted pink as well as their faces as a challenge any organized events including a play about the effects of bullying for the students it's important that we continue to stand together and create awareness not only today but every day can the minister tell this house how we ensure that our students feel safe and respected at schools across our province thank you minister of education remember and I'm just going to have to go to south would and check out all these pink faces and fingernails sounds like fun but our schools must be places where everyone staff students parents in the community feel welcome safe and respected and that's why I'm proud of the accepting schools act this act is Canada's most comprehensive anti-bullying legislation and as part of its definition of bullying speaker it also includes cyber bullying school safety has been a priority for this government from the beginning and that's why we require all school boards to have policies on bullying prevention and intervention our government has invested 425 million in safe schools initiatives that are helping make Ontario schools safer in fact this year thank you thank you speaker and I thank the minister for commitment on this important issue we're extremely proud of the investments made towards educating not only our students but parents and staff for the first time ever we have defined bullying in legislation so that every student, teacher, principal and parent knows what we're talking about when we say that bullying is not okay in our schools minister in 2015 you introduced the revised health and physical education curriculum to better reflect the advancement of technology making information readily available to students I've had many of my constituents in Cambridge speak positively about this new curriculum noting that the previous curriculum was written well before the use of cell phones and the internet was prevalent around students in fact my oldest two children didn't have cell phones till they reached university speaker through you can the minister tell us about the benefits of the revised curriculum and how it's helping our students navigate in today's technology driven world thank you minister thank you speaker and you know the reality is that we want our children to be safe and healthy but we also want to ensure that they have access to accurate information so that's why we needed to update our health and physical curriculum so that students understand the importance of healthy relationships having the confidence to say no safe use of technology in the internet and mental health the revised curriculum offers increased support acceptance and visibility for LGBTQ and two spirit children and youth we're also working speaker to ensure that our students have the opportunity to learn more about online safety through the revised curriculum students are learning about safe and respectful use of technology the social emotional and legal implications of online behavior such as thank you we have a question for the member from holland marple ten months ago all parties in this house supported the private members bill provincial framework and action plan concerning vector born and zoonotic diseases and I thank everyone for that support part of the legislation was a requirement to develop a provincial framework and to develop the action plan within a year lime-tick season is now upon us speaker will the premier now please report to the house and to the victims of this awful affliction progress today what's being done thank you so Mr. Speaker I appreciate the question from the member opposite I will say I don't have the information what has happened so far Mr. Speaker I know that the minister of health and long-term care will want to speak to him when he returns he is as you know Mr. Speaker he is in Attawapiskat today with the minister of children youth services and we'll certainly get back to the member opposite with an update the member from Hamilton on a point of order thank you so much Mr. Speaker I missed introductions earlier we have a third vote on the motion for third reading of bill 173 an act to implement budget measures and to enact an or amend various statutes calling the members this will be a five-minute bill first please take your seats first please take your seats April 12th 2016 Mr. Susan moved third reading of bill 173 an act to implement budget measures and to enact or amend various statutes all those in favor please rise one at a time and be recognized by the court Mr. Sousa Mr. Bradley Mr. Shirelli Madame Mayor Ms. Nguyen Ms. Matthews Ms. Sandole Mr. Quinter Mr. Col Mr. Tukar Mr. Delaney Mr. Dillon Mr. Brevelle Mr. Chan Mr. Moriti Mr. Coteau Mr. Flann Mr. Zimmer Madame Lalonde Mr. Quadri Mr. Albanese Mr. Dixon Mr. Prack Mr. Prack Mr. Wong Mr. Hunter Mr. Sergio Mr. Ballard Mr. Don Mr. Molley Mr. Martin Mr. McGarry Mr. Miltjen Mr. Pots Mr. Rinaldi All those opposed please rise one at a time and be recognized Mr. Wilson Mr. Brown Mr. Clark Mr. Hillyard Mr. Perry Mr. Thompson Mr. Barrett Mr. Monroe Mr. Huda Mr. McLaren Mr. Bailey Mr. Walker Mr. Smith Mr. Harris Mr. Nichols Mr. Marteau Mr. McDonnell Mr. Pettipies Mr. Hamilton Mr. Taylor Mr. Natasha Mr. Armstrong Mr. Hathfield Mr. Gretzky Mr. Gates Mr. French The ayes are 54, the nays are 44 The ayes being 54 and the nays being 44 I declare the motion carried There are no further deferred votes This house stands recessed until 3pm this afternoon


Being able to go to Morea and do research right on site, right on a coral reef is an amazing opportunity for students to engage in being scientists in an incredible location, a tropical island in the South Pacific. This Morea class is by far my most favorite class to teach. The students go and spend nine weeks in Morea. First they go and learn all about the island, learn all about the natural history, learn all about the culture of French Polynesia. And then they choose a project to work on. This is Cook's Bay. It's amazing. You can just jump out of your bedroom and essentially walk right into the water. This is the traditional Polynesian gathering hut. It's where I like to hold office hours with students and we talk about their projects. Hi, my name is Liam. I'm here onto my reef looking at coral and the structure they provide for all the organisms. I actually took a marine biology course in undergrad. Getting to see the ocean and actually be in the water with these animals was really kind of an eye-opening experience for me. I study a species of clam which is found in French Polynesia. The way that it generates energy is actually by collecting light. And that might help us modify solar panels so that we collect light more efficiently. By the end of the nine weeks you've really seen them mature into scientists and to have a really strong research project that ultimately can be published afterwards. So it's a really great experience being a TA in the course and seeing that transition. I love getting to know the students, getting to understand them as people and helping them to see how they connect as people to the way that they conduct research as scientists. It is by far one of the coolest things that you could do as an undergraduate student and I really encourage students to look at this opportunity as a really special one through UC Berkeley.