Hey, wait, I don't know where to go, somebody should be coming for it, but again, welcome if you have been with us since the beginning or the beginning, welcome back. My name is Valentine or at Colour Me Vell, but if this is your first encounter with either me or the channel or the show, you are in the perfect place, the Ladies' Breakfast Show in this hair town, in this hair city, there's a country, since now president likes to country hope or continent hope. I'm about to give us more ranking, not part of ranking. Hashtag is MCM, a day where we crush on our kings, and of course I can tell you how to interact with us at Y254 on Facebook, Y254 channel on X, Y254 underscore channel on the gram, and them others that's threads, TikTok and YouTube. In case you want to watch an interview again and again, like you just can't get enough of it, or you missed it, but for any reason or the other, now we're going to enter a very interesting conversation. It's started with an intro, then we brushed on politics and kind of slid into climate to actually bring this to a wonderful open, so we're transitioning very smoothly because the conversation we're going to have with this two very handsome gentlemen, if I may add, but they have a lot of spunk in them and I think that's how I like them this morning. On a Monday, nothing is blue except this set, or other parts of the set, and that guy should, but let me allow them to introduce themselves. Good morning gentlemen. Good morning. How are you? I'll start with you. What is your good name? Yes, my name is Brian Kitingi. I'm the Executive Director of the Policy Action Initiative, which is a very, very unique organization that brings together young people who are committed to changing the world and bringing up intricate solutions to solve the problems that our society faces, and usually do it through policy research, policy analysis, and a little bit of capacity building because you have to train people and you have to ensure that people are aware of both the proposed and the current policies that we have in place, specifically around four thematic areas, sustainable development, environmental action, and we know that the environment is a very big thing because if you don't take care of the environment, you're not going to be healthy, so the environment encompasses almost everything about life, and aside from those issues, there's also about sustainable peace and security, and also democratic governance because at the end of the day, we are here because we are freedom of speech, we are freedom of association. That's where I was able to move from, where I am in Georgia to come here. So we combine all these four areas and usually do a little bit of analysis, research, and capacity building to ensure that we involve more young people in governance processes. It's my favorite kind of guest. One question, two minute answer. We're going to have a good time. I like to insist that people say Elijah in the way I've said it. Yes, thank you. You're doing so well. So I am currently operations in research at policy action initiative. I like the way my colleague has already explained what we do, therefore I can literally take exactly what we need to introduce myself. Yes, but really research and operations, so my focus is especially on research, what is going on around development, around policy and all that, and what can we do so that we can also have those discussions about how we can also have the same impact within our society. Yes. All right, so we say charity begins at home, right? And we just recently had the conclusion of the COP28, that's the climate conference that was happening in Dubai, and it was concluded yesterday, that is Sunday, the third day of December. Now, one of the things that was mentioned was, or rather critics, let me not call them critics, let me call them activists, activists, because they were given a healthy amount of money amounting to approximately 680 billion Kenyan shillings, that's like 4.67 billion in dollars, American dollars, to curb certain things. And the president or his Excellency mentioned two major sectors, that is agriculture and energy, right? However, activists are confused, or they're saying that we should have this money going more into adapting, because we just had a drought a year ago, the president came into power facing a drought situation, and now we are having the El Nino phenomena. So according to policy, do you think these activists are right, even before we go to the floods right now, before I read out some numbers, we talk about how MPs were lost in Ntana. Before we talk about all that, just tell me the policies around that. Yes, actually, now you have to look at it from this point of view. First of all, we have to admit that Africa only contributes 3% to global emissions, and if we come to Kenya specifically, because you're not among the top industrialized nations in Africa, it's about 0.15% of global emissions. So in this case, it means that mitigation is not a very, very big factor. Mitigation is about reducing emissions. In climate, there's mitigation and there's adaptation. So mitigation is not a very big factor. So adaptation should be where the focus is, and when you look at what they say about adaptation is, Africa as a continent, we require $300 billion each year to address climate change in order to carry out these adaptation activities. And we are very lucky in our country, Kenya, it's very, very different from countries like Nigeria or Algeria or the ones that have that were blessed with very many oil deposits. So in this case, in our case, we have already transitioned to renewable energy. 80% of our grid comes from geothermal and hydro, which is renewable energy. And when you look at it, what they mean by adaptation is we need funding for, in order for us to switch from traditional agriculture, because remember that agriculture is the largest contributor to GDP in our country. It's the largest employer, even if many young people don't like working in farms. But it does. It does because that's where our food comes in. Most young people in the rural areas, where most people live, that's where they stay. So when they talk about adaptation is how are we going to transition to smart agriculture? How are we going to help communities that are in the northern parts of Kenya? I know people always think that Kenya revolves around Nairobi, a little bit of Mombasa and Diani where you go to the beach and enjoy. But majority, not majority, but a substantial population stay above the equator where the conditions are very arid. And in this case, the main economic activity is livestock rearing. So how are we going to help them adapt to this new change in climate? And that may mean, for example, if communities are keeping cattle, they have to transition and start planting. So gum indigenous crops, they have to transition their lifestyle. So when you talk about adaptation in our case, it's about smart agriculture, helping those communities transition to a new way of living, aside from pastoralism, and also helping people who live in urban informal settlements by building good drainage. Because remember that whenever floods happen, I used to live in Madari back in the day when I was hustling. And it's very, very tough. You can't even go to... The emperor, the lion, the champion. Yeah, it's a very, very hard imagine even to go to school. And many people actually, a lot of school hours are lost, a lot of economic hours are lost whenever it floods. So how are we going also to help them adapt? We're going to build better drainage. If it's people in Mombasa, you remember like there was a time Mombasa was the ocean had already come to... Had migrated. Nasiq Tambo. Nasiq Tambo. It's just two weeks ago. So adaptation also in that case, how are we going to build sustainable infrastructure in areas that are near the coastal, near the ocean, or near the lakeside? Because you know that due to the changing conventional rainfall patterns, these places are going to have more rainfall than before. So the current existing infrastructure cannot handle that. So they are right in that case. Our focus should be there. The adaptive... Yes. Now the same question, but I want to switch it up a bit. So what are we doing right now? So the 680 billion lands at our doorstep, how do we deal with El Nino as it comes? And of course, you know, extreme climate change now caters for both bloods and droughts. So today we're complaining it's raining too much. Tomorrow we don't have enough food. So how do we do that? So it's like you actually taking it right out of my mind exactly how I have it, which is interesting. This is what happens. I think it's so common in this country to hear it's raining. Oh, it's flooding, government help us, all this, all this, all that. Then within a few months, in fact, sometimes can happen even within two, three months. Oh my goodness, we are starving, we're starving, the land is dry, our animals are dying and all this and all this and all this. So we always have we have periods of excessively a lot of a lot of water that causes flooding, which wrecks havoc on lives. Then we follow shortly with very dry conditions that again, wrecks havoc on our lives, we lose lives and cattle and all that. So some of the ways we can use this $680 billion to address perhaps this particular problem. Number one is we need to look at already proven technologies, one of which is just water harvesting, as basic as that. Now, when you have water harvesting, you already have less water that can flow to cause flooding, because you know, we're already harvesting it and storing it somewhere. Whether this is of course the options that we're used to traditionally we have options of dams. That's number one. But now we even have technologies that allow us to put this water in tanks that is much cheaper. There's some tanks we have where the outside is made of steel, that the inside is made of rubber and some of them can store as much as 2 million liters of water, right? All you need is just flat land and all that. Now, when you have such technologies, you can harvest this water so that during the periods of dryness when we have drought, people will have access to water, right? So people will not say we're dying, we're dying because they'll have access to water. Whether it is in dams or these modern technology tanks. That's number one, right? So when it's flooding, that's what we should do so that when it's dry, we can now use up that water. But then if I take this even farther, this is a country where the places when it's dry, we still have rivers that are running. Have we thought of investing in irrigation? I think the president's mind is in the right direction because he's talking about agriculture and energy. Here are two suggestions on that. Number one, when it comes to agriculture, our rivers flow. Kenyans are excessively educated in terms of agriculture. You go to the university, you're not short of people who know how to irrigate dry lands. Our Kenyans have gone as far as Israel to study how exactly do you grow food in the desert. Kenya isn't even a desert. We should not have food in security. These people have the knowledge, they know how. And many of them are youths. You just need to engage them. They will show you how we grow food in the desert because they already know it and we're not even a desert, it's a semi-desert. That's another place to invest in, in irrigation agriculture, right? When it comes to energy, did you know that in Kenya, we have more capacity for geothermal power than we require to use as a country? In terms of the capability, if we were to harness all the energy that is available for geothermal, we have more power than we need ourselves. So that means that's another area we can invest. We can invest in geothermal power. And a good thing with geothermal power is it's not dependent on rainfall. See, a hydropower can be a challenge sometimes because when it gets dry, then hydropower, not sure we'll have the power. But with geothermal power, it's available all year round. We need to invest in the drilling of more wells, alright, so that we can now push our grid to possibly more than 95% geothermal, if not 99, 100. Because, rather, let me say renewable, not just geothermal, because this is possible. Those are areas that we can look into investing. You can look also into investing in solar power. Now, I have big thoughts on solar power. I know people talk about large land being used for solar power. There are simple things we can adapt. It's because I familiarise myself with all arguments as regards to do this or not to do this. So one thing we can do with solar power, a building like the one we're in, and all the buildings that are around, say, Nairobi and whatever urban areas or just rural areas, as long as there's a building right there, that is land, rather, the area of that building, the roof of that building, is a place where a solar panel can be placed or solar panels can be placed so that we can harvest energy. Did you know, in a single second, the earth receives more solar insulation than we use in every form of energy throughout the year? Every form. So if you take coal, you take gas, you take, we are still using solar, wind, hydro, geothermal, if you take all of that, the amount that falls on the earth in one second is more than we use in the whole year. That just shows you the potential that we also have right there. And your average household, if it was to be fully covered in solar panels, would produce three times as much power as it needs so that even be an excess to send out. So there's so many areas we can invest in and we need to ensure we have policies again that ensure it's very easy and people just want to do this. Yes. Before I get back to you, let me just, just on solar power alone, guys, this disclaimer is just on our opinion, but the facts are not debatable kindly, kindly. They can Google, right? Google is your friend. Please confirm. Yes. There's a notion, okay, we cannot take a ground just here. Solar panels are for people who live in leafy suburbs. So it's not for everyone. Is that how can we demystify that? How can we get that out of our system? Because it's not really true. It's just a panel too. Yes. So the challenge that has been previously with solar panels is that the initial cost seems high. But when you calculate in the wrong in the long run, the savings are significantly higher. Especially right now when there has been an increase in electricity prices, if somebody could invest, I'd highly recommend that. But one suggestion that I would definitely give, you know, with a 680 billion, is you can actually invest in plans where, rather you can build mechanisms and systems where people can actually have these things installed, all right? And one, pay for them slowly and over time. They actually already companies are doing that, right? You can pay for them slowly over time or have them installed for people. And remember what I said? About three times as much power as a place needs is what you can produce from a single roof. So you can have, you know, some of it just stay with whoever owns the roof. And then the excess can be exported to the rest of the grid. Now what Kenya needs to do is adapt our grid to also allow us to inject power. Something we have not done, we need to work on our policy to ensure that, you know, how will that work as number one? Then number two, we also need to work on our technology in terms of how our grid is. So we can do that. One city that has perhaps done this in a very excellent way should be Lancaster, California. These people invested so much in solar power right now. They ended up having excess electricity, which they have even used to produce hydrogen that is powering their local buses. Now California just for the record is not anywhere within the tropics in case someone does not know if they did not pay attention in geography class. Shade has been thrown a little bit, a little bit. I am just remembering, your geography teacher would be so proud. Yes, I hope she's watching me. Hi Malimu. So, so, so, but in Kenya we are within the tropics. That means we get a lot more sun and it's reliable throughout the year. So those are just some things we can we can do. Set up the mechanisms that allow people to pay slowly because in the long run we will benefit greatly as a country. We will have a lot of energy that is really much cheaper, reliable. Yes. Right, Brian. Now I am torn. I have two very wonderful questions I want to ask you, but I don't know if I can marry them or just ask them separately, but let's start with this. I will ignore this first part, guys, and we just talked about it with my co-host that is Brian Sacko 101 on all platforms. So there was a question posed to the spokesperson of the government concerning the attendance of the COP28 and to buy. Apparently there are too many people who want to, like, that's the part you can currently know that was my opinion. I was just echoing something I heard. However, what he did say that not only the public center went or the people you know representing the government, but also youth groups and women and NGOs and you know people from the Ministry of Energy, I'm guessing, climate and gender and all these wonderful things. So how what kind of policies do you expect that maybe will be implemented or introduced by these particular groups? Let's touch on the youth and and gender. Yeah, actually that's a very, very, very big problem because one thing that we have in this country is that and many young people actually when you go to the streets they usually complain is we hear that there is summit, there is this summit, like the Africa climate summit in September. That just happened. But no one, even when I when you go down to Akers, when you cross to Boyalan on the other side, you ask them, do you know what's happening at KSC? No, no one has involved us. And as a young person imagine you are you hear something is happening, there's a lot of climate, there's 680 billion, the other day so many foreigners came and they were in five-star hotels and no one tells us how does this benefit us and it becomes very problematic in order for you to involve them in all the solutions that my friend has actually mentioned very, very well because we know that for you to have climate adaptation or climate action or even environmental action because another thing is you know we don't want to be climate activists because climate action is only about reducing emissions. Environmental action is about everything pollution, biodiversity laws, habitat laws, deforestation. So we want to be environmental activists in that case, not climate activists. But for people who are wondering how then can I become an environmental activist when no one is involved in me, when no one is coming and telling us what is happening. Sorry for interrupting. Those two don't merit that the environmental activists of the climate because one leaves another. If I cut the trees it's going to affect the climate, no?  It's not like when you are an environmental because environmental deals with everything and like I said in the beginning that our emissions are also very negligible. So we shouldn't even be complaining about emissions when it comes to a country because we know that our emissions are 0.15 percent of the world's total. So it doesn't really really like it's just a drop in the ocean figuratively a drop in the ocean. So in this case that one thing that you need for young people is we have the Climate Change Amendment Act that was signed into law by President Truto in August. It's a very very good document and one of the places, one of the sections it mentions that the government should set up an awareness program to involve young people and to educate them and to sensitize them about climate and environment in general. And in this case they didn't go into specifics but ideally what now we should follow up is how do we do this awareness? We do it by contextualizing the message. If you're going to go to West Pocote, if you're going to go to Samburu, you're not going to go there and tell them about rising sea levels. I mean most of them have never even seen an ocean and it doesn't mean that they're backward or they aren't involved is that their environment is very different. So in this case you're going to talk to them about what? Pastoralism, about adapting to new socioeconomic lifestyles. If you're going to go to the lakeside, we are going to talk about flooding, we are going to talk about the prevalence of invasive species like the water hyacinth, if we go to Mombasa, if we go to Namu, the coastal areas, we are going to talk about the rising sea levels. If we go to Nairobi, we are going to talk about the drainage because this is an urban built-up environment. So it's about contextualizing the message when it comes to youth awareness. Another thing when it comes to gender mainstreaming is that because climate change affects us sadly women more than men because you know that in our country it's still a patriarchal country and majority of the times it is women who usually do household chores. So how is a woman going to go and do cleaning, how is a woman going to go and do cooking if there is no water in the household? If she's going to be forced to go and walk around 15 kilometers to go and fetch water then it means that a lot of her time is going to be wasted in order to complete a task which she could have done it easily in the past. So it prevents her from going in starting a salon or doing some grocery business and at the end of the day the poverty increases because you know that women most of the time contrary to popular opinion are the breadwinners of the family because the man has the money yes but it's a woman who ensures that the children eat. It's a woman who ensures that everything is there. So it's a reality. So in this case about gender mainstreaming one thing that we have one piece of documentation that we have policy that we have in place is the carbon credit trading and benefit sharing bill and in that bill it says that they are going to set up a scheme where companies polluting companies that pollute the Coca-Cola the big companies the ones that are responsible even named by the UNFCC the United Nations framework for for climate convention as the biggest climate change emitters they're going to come and they're going to fund initiatives that capture carbon from the atmosphere. So in this case they're going to set up a carbon credit trading and benefit sharing authority and in this case if you are a young person you have an initiative like for example planting mangroves planting trees if you have even an adaptation because you know that adaptation can be a form of carbon capture if it's done in the right way like my friend explained here. So in this case you're going to register the initiatives that you have and then the companies are going to come and select from the database. So that is I think one of the best ways one of the pieces of policies that you have that are going to assist in that but outside of that also we also need to streamline our stock exchange system and the reason why I'm saying that is because we know that climate financing has three innovative models there's the carbon markets there's a depth for climate swaps that is extending depth for climate investments and we have green bonds and green bonds is very very very innovative and very very exciting because what happens in green bonds is that companies are going to sell their bonds at very very cheap prices and young people or any person not even young if you're old but you're interested in making money not even just the environment you can invest in the green bonds and you know that Nigeria since Nigeria rolled it out it was a first African country in 2017 when they rolled it out at least 29 million dollars has been able to be exchanged to the beneficiaries and when you look at it globally that's just 0.4 percent of the global total so it means that green bonds have already become a big thing when you come to Europe when you come to America and it's going to become a very very innovative thing when it comes here to Africa but what we need to do is we need to streamline our stock exchange systems to ensure that young people can easily invest in it for example through mobile money through M-Pesa instead of going and paying going through the bureaucratic process of having a bank account and investing in that why can't I buy the bonds through M-Pesa just like the way I can insure it does just like the way I can Fuliza so it's about when it comes to the policies it's generally about contextualizing the message in terms of awareness implementing a system that is going to allow for the carbon markets for carbon markets for carbon credit trading and also investing not investing but streamlining processes that allow for innovative financing models like the green bonds so that young people can get opportunities from these places and the good thing is we have this frameworks in place it is just a matter of implementation and a little bit of streamlining yes so I should make a bit point on the green bonds ah green bonds is a thing is a thing it's a thing I guess two questions in part one would be we are a bit concerned as a people and by we I don't say me because the business example exists as a nation we've heard that the amount of money sounds quite large but you're not distributed over the number of people we are in the country and as you said people have different needs everywhere in the region like the people of the northern and and us the upburn setting possibly have different requirements so how can we feel confident that once these funds are received that they're going to be used properly how is there a way that the government or policy makers let me say policy makers can be so transparent that I as a lay person may me come a one zero may me come on to a ground I understand yes apparently this is something called COP 28 that happened and and we got a an amount and it's going here and here and here so maybe I'll stop with that well I'd say two things first I think education letting people know that this is available and how exactly it works that's number one but number two specifically to answer your question I think counties in terms of as he mentions the different regions each of these regions are in specific counties that are different it might be a bit difficult perhaps to coordinate all this from a central place perhaps to have accountant you know to account for it all in a central place just to know what is happening have a central system within government that looks at everything yes but in terms of the distribution of these funds and what they do I think counties okay should be a solution and specifically groups that are already working in the counties to provide this solution so know exactly how much money is being given to each and how that money is being spent so you can just come and solve the problems that exist in Nairobi or Mombasa and you know just the main city just the main urban area so to say you need if you're really going to reach the people on the ground you really need to use the counties in order to be able to provide this money to people on rather to provide this money to people who can offer solutions on the ground so in my opinion if you can employ this on the counties first first do your do your study if they've not done it yet figure out what is the problem in you know whatever county in this county in that county what what kind of solutions are needed in this county in that county while in some in some counties we'll need to solve issues around water in some counties we are we are solving issues in the opposite direction some countries will struggle with being dry others will struggle with you know with too much rain so how you know how are we going to solve issues around this so that that would be my suggestion we can set up systems within the counties all right there are groups already that exist that are are are acting around certain problems are occurring get this to them fund these groups so that this action can be taken and if you are wondering how you do your civic education these same groups provide you with all of that so you don't have to start setting up new government funds for let's educate people about what we're doing and this is important because even if say you part of this I know people will think about tree planting. This country happens to have a lot of tree planting but not enough tree growing. The reason sometimes we don't have tree growing is because we plant trees, hashtag social media, green initiative, saving the planet one tree at a time but it is one tree at a time for one day and we are gone. No one watches over those trees and sometimes especially if you're doing it in an area you do not live in, no one watches so if you could have people who are living there educated on why it's important because there are people who just keep seeing you growing trees they don't understand why. There was a whole national holiday where we spent time growing trees. Yes not planting. Okay planting trees sorry not growing planting trees but some people have some people have not watered a single tree since so those were trees that were just planted but they'll not grow and if we're going to solve things and the issue of trees is just one there's so much more when it comes to climate that we can discuss but if we're going to really provide solutions the people who are handling these things need to get that education so counties, systems, local groups. So devolution is on the right track. There's a difference between one thing we have to be very careful is when it comes to the international community it is very easy for them to pledge they are going to give money when the pari agreement the one that is that now all the focus is on that based all the climate because you see like for us to have COP it had to have the UNFCC in 1992 after that we had the Kyoto Protocol then now we have the pari agreement of 2015 under that developed nations committed they're going to give 100 billion dollars each year to the global south countries for them to adapt to the climatic the change in climatic conditions but you know that not even a single shilling has been given since then so are we sure that this 4.6 billion dollars that has been promised to Kenya is going to be given because we have this culture in the international community of making pledges but they don't give the funds and another problem is let's say even if they give the funds we know that in Africa we have always had this problem of debt or aid doesn't get to the people whom it deserves and it's called there's a book that Dambisa Moyr wrote a Zambian intelligent order she wrote about dead aid so the whole idea was since since 1960 when the first country african country got independence what's around two trillion dollars has been given in aid but not even one percent of that got to the people it deserved so for example if we go to kybera today how much aid has been given you said aid and kyberos the first place because money has been pumped into that place organizations have been set up and and hey everybody should be driving a book everyone but unfortunately that is not the case so another thing is we have to ensure we have to change this framework the international financing framework to ensure that whenever money is released it gets to the people it deserves because we know that for example that's 680 billion it's a either going to be given to the government or it's going to be given to organizations that are already international organizations they are not kenyan organizations so that money is not going to a kenyan interpreter is not going to a kenyan young person it's not going to a kenyan woman in the village so that money still remains within themselves or if it's going to be given to the government again it comes with the condition that the government has to work with one of those organizations in implementing the project so the money never gets to the real real person on the ground so again that is another thing when you talk about the money we have to ensure it becomes part of the conversation yes all right thank you but i i really could go on and on and on with both of you you're just either we're debating or you're pumping with knowledge either way it's very refreshing this morning morning and i appreciate it but brian and elijah i think we have to stop it at here guys i might have to release them but trust and believe me mean a green bons i found money guys i found the gold i found the gold all right thank you again so much for coming maybe just one more time tell us who you are and what you do in seconds not not many uh-huh elijah so elijah bercurry operations and research police action initiative and brian brian kithingi executive director police action initiative all right thank you valentino boy at color me val for y254 thank you so very much for allowing me to host you guys as always always always such a supreme pleasure and love spending time with you even though i cannot see you i can feel you i can feel your presence at y254 facebook y254 channel on x y254 underscore channel on the grab and now brian asakwa 101 is about to come in with a conversation talking about safe festivities or how best to face the festive season safely i don't know come on yeah you understand you understand in a sentence how do you advise people to safely enjoy the first the first of season yeah don't drink and drive simple wise man that was my exact thought that just that's it especially that and please whenever you're going out or staying in always have akili with you like don't leave it at home i think that's it for now bye bye


Free kits to test for radioactive radon gas in your home are available for pick up throughout Beltrami County. The Beltrami County Health and Human Services Division is teamed with the Minnesota Department of Health to distribute the kits, instructions on how to hang up the testing portion, what the results mean, and how to lower the amount in your home are included. According to the American Cancer Society, radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer. There's really less than one percent of the residences around the state that have been tested for radon and we know that it's an issue in many homes and so we're really trying to encourage everyone to take advantage of this opportunity to get a free test kit and find out what the issues are in their own home. Staff ran out of the kits after passing out 175 to residents, anyone interested in a kit will be able to get one when more are received next week. If you've enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland Public Television.


It is time for member statement and I will look over to whoever stands first and that happens to be the member from Sudbury. Thank you very much Speaker. Speaker 38% of Canada's opiate overdose deaths happened in Ontario last year and that's the highest number of opiate overdose deaths of any province or territory in the country and it's the highest by a long shot. But those aren't statistics speaker, those are people, those are families whose lives were shattered, those are sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, aunts and uncles, those are best friends, work friends, those are our neighbours and those are people who are desperate for help. And while the Conservative government continues to talk of the game, it's all sizzle, it's no steak. Every year the federal government provides Ontario with $175 million for mental health and addictions. Do you know how much the Conservative put towards this in their 2019 budget? Zero. Zero in 2019, zero in 2020 and zero in this budget too. Gildan O'Brien sent me this letter about his brother, he said Dennis O'Brien Jr., it's my brother's name. He died last month on January 13th, he died alone, he did not have the proper resources to seek help for his mental health and addictions problem. That's the fault of improper funding to mental health and addictions programs. It's time to start taking action, we get it, you're working on it, we heard that for months if not years. Our homeless populations and vulnerable populations can't afford to keep waiting. The safe consumption site cannot come soon enough. I work downtown as a security guard and we usually see one overdose per shift where we need to administer Narcan. In police foundations I learned about how bad our downtown core had gotten in terms of the vulnerable population but it's much worse than anything you can expect from reading about it. I challenge you to spend a day downtown observing and you may begin to realize that those on the street, although unlikely to vote in elections, are still human beings that you should care about. Thank you. Please. Thank you very much. Apologize. Time is up. Further member statement to member from Oakville. Thank you very much Mr. Speaker and it's an honor to rise in the legislature today to discuss a truly important campaign. April is be a donor month here in the province of Ontario. Starting tomorrow it is critical to raise awareness and encourage individuals to register and become an organ or tissue donor. The need for organ and tissue donors is becoming even more apparent. There are almost 1600 Ontarians currently on a wait list for a transplant. Currently there are more individuals on a wait list than there is organ availability. Sadly every three days somebody in Ontario dies a preventable death while waiting for a transplant as a result of limited liability. Since April 1st 2020 registrations for organ and tissue donations in Ontario have decreased by more than 50% versus the same time a year ago. I cannot stress how important it is to being a donor and the impact on other people's lives. One organ donor can save up to eight lives and enhance the lives of 75 individuals. I want to clarify any potential misconceptions there are about registering to be a donor.  April 7th is also a national green shirt day. Green shirt day was inspired by Logan Boulet who was one of the humble Broncos who tragically passed away. Logan, a registered donor, saved six lives. In his memory and to the champion organ and tissue donation I encourage everybody to wear green on April 7th. Thank you. Member Statements. The Member for Scarborough, Southwest. Chair Speaker, this is the sixth day that Ontario has seen over 2000 daily cases. Today is the highest. We're now into a third wave which is projected to be far worse than we have experienced so far. There are over 1100 schools which reported COVID-19 cases and 58 schools which had to close down as of yesterday. Parents, families, children and youth are facing an incredible amount of uncertainty. The government had more than a year now to prepare for what was coming. They had the opportunity to invest in safer learning environments for our children but chose to do otherwise. I recently heard from a constituent, Donna, who is a mom to a 15-year-old. The kids had been pivoted and bounced around a law during this pandemic, she shared, as she continued to tell us about how difficult it is to see her teenage son not have the opportunity to take a break. Students are facing burnout and an unprecedented amount of mental health strain as they have to consistently switch between learning methods and see their safety and well-being undermined. In the wake of yesterday's confusing back and forth between the Premier and the Minister about whether or not to postpone the March break, Donna, like many parents, are first-rated with this government and their inability to provide clear messaging for students and families. Parents are worried, worried for the safety and mental health of their children as they navigate this pandemic. Mr. Speaker, it's time this government prioritizes education for the sake of families across this province and takes responsibility for parents, kids and education workers so that they're not left behind. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The next member's statement, the member for Mississauga Lakeshore. Thank you, Speaker. Recently, I was honored to join the Minister of Infrastructure, along with the Federal Minister of Infrastructure and Communities, Catherine McKenna, and the Federal Minister of Transportation, Omar Algabra, and the Mayor of Mississauga, Bonnie Cromby, to announce a joint investment of over $158 million in a modern public transit infrastructure for the people of Mississauga. This includes $56 million for a new two-way bus rapid transit corridor along Lakeshore Road in Mississauga Lakeshore with three new stations between East Avenue and Delta Road and connecting to the Go Transit Network, the Hero Ontario LRT, the TTC, and Pedestrian and Cycle Network. Together, we're building a modern and accessible interregional transit system that will support our growing population along the Lakeshore Road corridor with 20,000 new residents in Lakeview Village on the site of the former coal plant and 8,000 new residents in Brightwater on the site of the former Texaco refinery. It is critical that we build the transit infrastructure we need to support this growth, both for our economy, recovery, and for the community's future. Speaker, this announcement is also a great example on what we are able to achieve when we are working in partnership with the federal government and the municipality. So I'm looking forward to continuing working together, both as we respond to the impact of COVID-19 as we lay the groundwork for our recovery and for a stronger, better, and more progressive Ontario. Thank you. Member Statements, the Member for Niagara Centre. Thank you, Speaker. Many seniors in Niagara in their 70s have been patiently waiting for over a month to receive their vaccine. On the weekend, those over the age of 70 were told by the province that they could finally book an appointment. But on Monday, when the opportunity arrived, they found only disappointment. Dozens of seniors could not book online and could not get through on the hotline. Those that got through were told that there were no vaccines in Niagara and they didn't know when they would be there. My office was flooded with calls from people like Angie Demeray from Port Coburn who said she spent all day on the website making phone calls. She says seniors have transportation and mobility issues and this system makes things even more confusing. Another senior from Port Coburn said she was offered an appointment at the Toronto Metro Convention Centre. John Neely was told to just keep calling every day there were no vaccines in Niagara. Mass confusion, Speaker. The chief medical officer of health stated he wasn't confident that there would be enough vaccine to vaccinate the 70 to 74 age group and public health could only say that they were working with the province to let them know the issues and working to try and figure out what had happened. This government had months to organize, Speaker. It is extremely disappointment that this system is having so many issues and is so unfriendly to seniors who are trying to protect themselves and others by following the rules and attempting to book their vaccine appointments but are unable to because this government has not organized the system properly. We must do better for our seniors and their families who have already endured so much throughout this pandemic. Thank you. The next member's statement, the member for Ottawa, South. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker and April is be a donor month and next Wednesday, April 7th will be Green Shirt Day. We won't be here. I'm gonna remind all my colleagues to wear a green shirt next Wednesday. And green shirt day is, of course, in honor of the late Logan Boulet whose organ donation saved six lives and inspired 100,000 donor signatures. Almost 1,600 Ontarians are on a wait list. Every three days, one of them loses their life while waiting to receive that really important donation that they need. Ontario's Triumgift of Life Network has called that for a reason. Organ donations can save up to eight lives and enhance up to 75 others through tissue donation. With the pandemic, transplants are down and registrations are down over 50% from pre-pandemic levels. So while 90% of Ontarians support organ donation, only 33% have signed up. In my writing about Ottawa South, it's 35%. And there are families in my writing like the Terry family and Suzanne Camus and Mark and many others who are strong advocates for increasing organ donation. So we need to do more to help them. We need to do more to make people aware. And we could do that, all of us who haven't already, by taking two minutes and going to be a donor.ca to register. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Thank you very much. The next member statement, the member for Etobicoke Lakeshore. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I'm elated to rise this morning to share groundbreaking news from my writing of Etobicoke Lakeshore. In 2017, Trillium Health Partners and the Government of Ontario announced an unfunded plan to support a major development in the expansion of the Queensway Health Centre located in the south end of my writing. As outlined in the 2021 budget, our government took action and we are moving forward and finally getting shovels in the ground. The South Etobicoke community is growing rapidly and I am glad that the need for greater access to localised healthcare is being recognised and actions are being taken. Founded in 1956 as the Queensway General Hospital, the Queensway Health Centre is the product of an amalgamation between Etillium Health Partners and the Queensway General Hospital in 1998. The health centre has served the needs of our diverse community for decades and this announcement is important to the continued development of South Etobicoke. The Queensway Health Centre expansion will include the creation of a modern post-acute facility in a complex continuing care and rehabilitation patients to receive care and recover in a purpose-built environment as well as new parking structure. Trillium Health Partners is Canada's largest hospital with over 1.7 million patients visits annually and more than 277,000 visits per year to the emergency department and urgent care centre. Over the next 20 years, no hospital in Ontario will experience more growth in demand for services than the Trillium Health Partners Hospital. Thank you to the Government of Ontario. The next Member's statement, the Member for Parkdale High Park. Speaker, people on social assistance are increasingly forced to make do with less. A disabled person on Ontario Disability Support Program is expected to live with an income of $1,169 per month to cover rent, food, utilities and all other basic necessities. The rate is even lower for a person on Ontario Works who is expected to cover all costs of living with only $733 per month. Social assistance rates fall well below the poverty line and have remained stagnant despite skyrocketing housing costs, inflation and increasing prices of basic necessities. Speaker, people on social assistance have been ignored for decades by successive governments, both liberal and conservative and even ignored during the pandemic. Through the federal SERP program, we know that $2,000 per month is the minimum that people need to survive. Yet, when the government announced the budget last week, there were no rate increases to either ODSP or OW. In fact, poverty was not even mentioned once in the budget document. At a time when it is more important than ever to ensure that no one is left behind, the government is turning its back on poor and disabled people. The government claims that the budget aims to protect people's health and Ontario's economy. But without providing long overdue rate increases, this budget cannot achieve either role. I call on this government to listen to Ontarians, to increase rates and directly support people on ODSP and OW. Thank you. Thank you very much. The next member's statement, the member for Markham Thornhill. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm honored to rise today to speak about the cause close to my heart. Each April, Ontario commemorate via Donor Month to raise awareness about organ and tissue donation. I want to thank the staff of the Trillium Kept Up Life Network for advocating on behalf of this important issue. Currently in Ontario, over 1,400 people are waiting for life-saving organ. Every three days, someone in Ontario die waiting for transplant. Only 35% of eligible health card holders are registered and organ donors. Restation for organ and tissue donation in Ontario have decreased more than 50%, Mr. Speaker. As we recover from the pandemic, the need for life-saving organ is higher than ever. Mr. Speaker, on April 6th, 2018, the Humphold Broncos Hockey Team met a tragic accident which took the life of 16 people, including 21-year-old Logan Boley. Logan organ donation saved sick life and inspired almost 150,000 organ donors registration across Canada.  This April, I encourage all Ontarians to sit down with your loved ones to discuss the registration as an organ donor. You can do it online at padonor.ca. It's only take a few minutes to register online and all you need is your Ontario health card number, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you. Thank you very much. Next member's statement, the member for Milton. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Milton is one of the fastest-growing communities in the province, but remains very tight-knit, Mr. Speaker. That means more and more families are calling Milton home each and every day. As our community continues to grow, I'm proud that our government continued to support our growth. This past Friday was a perfect example, Mr. Speaker, it was a pleasure to attend the groundbreaking ceremony of yet another new school in Milton, a Catholic elementary school number 10 at Kennedy Circle. I was proud to be joined by the Minister of Education, our longest-serving Mayor in the country, Mayor Kranz, Councillors Mike Cluitt and Rick DeLorenzo and our two Catholic Board Trustees, Marvin Duarte and Patrick Murphy and also the Director of Education for the Catholic Board, Mr. Speaker, Patrick Daley. Speaker, this is the sixth new school for our community since June 2018, totaling over $150 million investment from our government for new schools in Milton. This is in addition to the $18 million expansion of Bishop Redding and the $3 million to St. Peter's Elementary School for New Child Care Center. As a proud father of three, Mr. Speaker, I know how important investments like these are for our community and I'm proud that our government continues to deliver for students and families for Milton. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you very much. That concludes our member statements for this morning.


Now, I see some guys from the CWA. CWA, how are you? And I want to thank these guys. And CWA members all over the East Coast, IBW members as well. You know what they're doing? They are on strike right now. They're on strike against Verizon. Not easy for them to do. They're not getting their paychecks today. Not easy for them and their families. You know why they are on strike? They are on strike because Verizon is an enormously profitable corporation. But what Verizon is now doing is telling these workers that their healthcare benefits have got to be cut. Verizon is telling workers here in this country who work for Verizon that the jobs they now have in calling centers are going to be outsourced to the Philippines or other low-wage countries. So if Verizon doesn't have enough money to pay these guys, their healthcare benefits provide jobs in this country. But amazingly enough, they do have $18 million a year to pay their CEO. But these guys, men and women in the CWA are not taking this sitting down. They are fighting back. They are fighting for every worker in America. And that's what the American economy is about today. CEOs making 200, 300 times more than their workers making. And what the economy is about is a disastrous trade policy. Now, I know trade is not a sexy issue. It's not mentioned on television virtually at all. But what trade has done to this country, unfair trade policies, NAF, the permanent normal trade relations with China, shut down. Thousands of factories throughout this country, millions of people lost their jobs. Jobs go to China, go to Mexico. If elected president, we are going to reverse those trade policies.


what the difference is between a conjunctive schedule and an alternative schedule? Well I will tell you. Maybe. Hold on, I have to restart that because I've completely forgotten what they are. It starts out with alternative. Alright. Have you ever wondered what the difference is between an alternative schedule and a conjunctive schedule? Me too! I'm going to have to go take a look. Have you ever wondered what the difference is between a conjunctive schedule and an alternative schedule? I am no longer wondering what the difference is between an alternative schedule and a conjunctive schedule. Why? Because I've been to Cooper and Social Asset Off Mayor and everybody else out there into the sun for 14,000 times in a row and I'm going to tell it to you really simply. Are you ready? An alternative schedule is simple. You have an alternative between a ratio schedule and an interval schedule. They're both presented to you at the same time, hence the concurrent part. You have ratio schedules. Complete five widgets, get paid $100. Or work for 50 minutes, get paid $100. Doesn't matter which one, right? So, well, wait a minute, doesn't quite work. Ratio schedules, first response. Yeah, whatever. Anyway, so, no, that was a time schedule. Shit, interval schedule. See? I'm telling you, these things are confusing, right? So, shall we go back? I'm messing with you, folks. No, I'm not. I am kind of. Just a little bit. Anyway, so, ratio schedule, complete 50 widgets. This one, you're going to get paid after every 50 minutes if you happen to be working, which sounds really weird, but it's really the truth. Anyway, this is why you should only work when your boss is watching. Don't do that. Anyway, you have a ratio schedule, you have an interval schedule, you have an alternative, right? So, one or the other.  It doesn't matter if it's the interval or the ratio. As long as you complete one, you're golden, right? So, what are the keys with an alternative schedule? All jokes aside, the keys are really simple. You have to have two types of schedules, two types of basic schedules, one of them being ratio, one of them being interval. You don't have to worry about fixed or variable, but just, or variable, but one of them has to be ratio, one of them has to be interval. Complete which one, whichever one you want, earn the reinforcer, game over, right? So, in the other one, the conjunctive schedule, which I almost forgot. So, the other one, the conjunctive schedule, you have to complete both. Other than that, they're exactly the same. You have a ratio schedule and an interval schedule, and in the conjunctive schedule, you have to complete both components in order to earn the reinforcer that you try to earn. That's really the only difference between those. They're really easy, but they're really easy to get confused, which is why you saw me going back and forth the book 14 times. Hopefully, you won't have to go back and forth to your book. Now, you can just replay our video over and over and over and over and over and over again, and you'll figure out the difference between alternative and conjunctive schedules. Again, alternative either, or you're in the reinforcer, conjunctive, you got to make some, you got to do them both, okay, in order to earn the reinforcer. That's it. That's all I got.