So after Donald Trump refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power a couple of weeks ago at the vice presidential debate Mike Pence was asked Will you commit to a peaceful transfer all of power in the event? You lose this election and if you watched it, you'd know that he dodged that question We did not get an answer from him and if you don't get an answer to that very simple question That means the answer is no now This is alarming considering the fact that just a couple of weeks ago in an article for the Atlantic Barton Gellman explains how Trump's legal team has a strategy for Donald Trump to potentially remain in power Even if Joe Biden wins by basically appointing his own electors Where states are controlled by Republicans to the electoral college to overturn the results of certain states if it is in fact Close now since that article was published the situation has worsened And when I say the situation has worsened, I mean that in Donald Trump's political orientation. He is becoming more and more Authoritarian it's no longer just the way that he acts It's what he is doing using the powers that he has as president of the United States To undermine democracy and what he's doing now is calling on his attorney general to indict His political opponent just weeks before an election and as Jenny Fink of Newsweek explains on Thursday Trump told Fox Businesses Maria Bartiramo that Biden and Obama spited his campaign and urged attorney general will bar To indict them because we got plenty. You don't need anymore without an indictment Trump said we'll get little satisfaction And he won't forget it now first of all understand that I think that when People at his crowd chanted lock her up in 2016 that was problematic sure But I think that the media made a bigger deal out of it than it was in actuality But now this is a different scenario because Donald Trump isn't just some political outsider trying to obtain power now He has power so when he actually does directly call for one of his political opponents to be investigated or indicted for bogus reasons That should scare everyone because this is what we see in authoritarian regimes. This is what dictators do Now what he's basically arguing is that well, you know what there's evidence that in 2016 the FBI Spied on my campaign now it is true that when Obama was in power Intelligence communities Investigated his campaign to determine whether or not there was any Russian interference. We all know the story but what Trump is basically arguing here is that well because Under Obama's watch even if Obama didn't explicitly direct the FBI to investigate my campaign the fact that as president it happened That's good enough indict them indict my political opponent because Intelligence agencies spied on me. That's what he's arguing now. It's interesting to me that Trump's argument effectively is spying is unacceptable if it happens to me But if we're spying on the American people Doesn't matter because as can clip and sign of the nation reports federal agencies wiretapped the phones of protesters in Portland On top of that at the local level in San Francisco police illegally spied on protesters now Donald Trump's administration as well as Obama's administration wanted to prosecute Edward Snowden who is a whistleblower who unveiled a massive Unconstitutional and unlawful surveillance state being carried out by the NSA Does Donald Trump want Obama and Biden to be indicted because of what the NSA did Under their watch. No because he's doing the same thing He only is against spying if it happens to him And really he knows that there's not a lot here to work with because all of the things that he's accusing Obama for if he believes that Obama and Biden can be indicted because The FBI surveils a campaign or anyone you can be indicted for that too But what Trump is trying to do here is use this story for purposes of political gain He doesn't believe that Biden did anything that warrants an indictment But if Biden were to be indicted just weeks before an election that would definitely have an impact on the election It could tip the scales in Donald Trump's favor so this is a problem because he's using his institutional power as president as an incumbent president who's seeking re-election to Direct federal agencies explicitly to criminally investigate his main political opponent right before an election And you know, it's not just his main political opponent He retweeted a tweet from judicial watch that calls for Ilhan Omar to be investigated for some reason or the other now I will say it's not inherently an abuse of power For, you know, a sitting president or administration to investigate Anyone who has power or even who may be a political opponent if There's evidence that they are culpable of some wrongdoing. So for example when it was the case that Kelly Loeffler Diane Feinstein and Jim Inho were busted for insider trading when they dumped their stocks after they were briefed on the severity of COVID-19 and they knew that the market would crash That investigation was not controversial The only controversial thing about that investigation is that it didn't result in any of them being indicted But the point is the investigation itself was legitimate But when you just throw around, you know, let's investigate this person or that person under a dubious proposition When you weaponize the legal system for your own political gain That's where we start getting into some really murky territory dictatorial Territory Republicans aren't even trying to hide the fact that they no longer favor democracy But it's not just Donald Trump because Republican Senator Mike Lee tweeted. We're not a democracy now My response to that is all right, you know, I kind of agree to an extent, but let's change that Let's make our system more democratic. Let's enhance our democracy But that's not what he's saying. He is vocalizing his disdain for democracy because in another tweet he adds Democracy isn't the objective Liberty peace and prosperity are we want the human condition to flourish rank Democracy can thwart that I'm gonna repeat the last two sentences. We want the human condition to flourish rank democracy Can thwart that in other words I'm not in favor of democracy unequivocally, I don't believe that democracy and further democratizing the United States of America is a good thing that we should do You have a sitting United States senator openly expressing his reservations about democracy and Honestly, it's shocking But it's not too surprising because the Republican Party for years now has been shifting further and further to the right And you can only shift so far to the right until you arrive at authoritarianism and we are now seeing them enter explicitly authoritarian territory Where they're not even pretending to care about democracy the facade is gone. They're just out right now Attacking democracy now It was always the case that Republicans Did not like democracy because they've literally tried to suppress democracy in order to gain power for years I mean in Iowa the Trump campaign just successfully got a hundred thousand ballots invalidated and in Texas the Republican governor Greg Abbott Invalidated a decision that would have expanded the locations where voters can drop off absentee ballots So now because of what he did there's just one drop-off location in each county Which means that if you don't have access to reliable transportation You may not be able to drop off your ballot altogether. This is voter suppression now We're not even talking about the 2018 election where Brian Kemp as Georgia Secretary of State used his power His institutional power to purge hundreds of thousands of voters from the rolls Mostly people of color which ended up leading to him winning that election which was effectively a stolen election So the point is Republicans have always had to or tried to suppress the vote Because that's the only way that they can win elections, but what's changing now is that the facade is Disappearing it's going away. Now you could make the case. Well, look, maybe It's better that they just be upfront with us and tell us that they hate democracy I would argue no the facade is better than no facade even though it's disingenuous because when you start explicitly saying maybe democracy isn't the best thing that actually has a cultural impact Their base picks up on that and the Republican Party's base is indeed following them as they move closer and closer towards openly embracing authoritarianism because as David Egret and Ed White of AP reports Agents foiled a stunning plot to kidnap Michigan Democratic governor Gretchen Whitmer Authority said Thursday in announcing charges in an alleged scheme that involved months of planning and even rehearsals To snatch her from her vacation home six men were charged in federal court with conspiring to kidnap the governor in reaction To what they viewed as her uncontrolled power according to a federal complaint separately seven others were charged in state court under Michigan's Anti-terrorism laws for allegedly targeting police and seeking a civil war a few hours later Whitmer pinned some blame on President Donald Trump noting that he did not condemn white supremacists in last week's debate with Joe Biden and instead Told a far-right group to stand back and stand by hate groups heard the president's words Not as a rebuke but as a rallying cry as a call to action Whitmer said when our leaders speak their words matter They carry weight the six men charged in federal court plighted for months Consulting and training with members of a group that federal authorities described as a militia and Undertaking rehearsals in August and September according to an FBI affidavit They were arrested Wednesday night and face up to life in prison if convicted now I should remind you that back in April when far-right extremists protested governor Whitmer's lockdown because of COVID-19 Donald Trump tweeted in all caps Liberate Michigan and months later we learn that domestic terrorists Literally tried to do what Trump wanted them to do quote unquote liberate Michigan by overthrowing their state's Democratically elected governor now these terrorists are not representative of the average conservative, right? But what we are seeing is that over time? gradually conservatives Republicans mostly Donald Trump supporters are losing faith in democracy and they're not losing faith in democracy Because you know, they've lost a lot of elections and they feel like they can never win They're losing faith in democracy while their guy is in power meaning that they think he doesn't have enough power Therefore, maybe if he had more power if he was a dictator Things would be better. We can actually do what he wanted to do just a couple of years ago One of Donald Trump supporters said, you know, I never thought that I would want a dictator But if there is going to be a dictatorship in America, I would want Trump to be that dictator Never in my life did I think I would like to see a dictator, but if there's gonna be one I want it to be Trump Now I get what you're gonna say. That's just one lady. That's a single anecdote. So it doesn't amount to much Yes, but I would counter by saying go to YouTube go to the comment section of any article where you know someone a commentator or a journalist is talking about How problematic it is that Donald Trump refuses to commit to a peaceful transfer of power and you see conservatives openly celebrating that fact not thinking that what he's doing is undemocratic but thinking that what he's doing actually is Necessary to save democracy. So either they don't believe in democracy at all and they've lost faith in it and they openly want a dictatorship or They still at least buy into the idea that democracy is a good thing, but they think that Trump Taking you know action to undermine democracy is actually better for the long-term health of democracy Either way, they've embraced Undemocratic tactics and I've got to tell you this should worry you if you're not worried this should worry you because democracy doesn't work if there's no buy-in if People who exist in society no longer believe that democracy is a legitimate form of government that democracy cannot survive This is why in you know, newly democratized regimes around the world democracies are so fragile and they end up slipping back into authoritarian regimes or illiberal democracies because you know, it takes time to Get a democracy to the point where all of society believes in it Like it has to be ingrained Culturally in a country in order for it to really have a lasting effect But what we are seeing right now is the Delegitimization of democracy and I would argue that sure there are reasons to be dissatisfied with democracy Because you know, we are seeing it be eroded over time with Citizens United and certain things You know our institutions being eroded, but if people in this country are just outright saying democracy may not cut it any longer That's a problem and what we are witnessing openly now is Democracy becoming a partisan issue When democracy itself becomes a partisan issue Only bad things can come afterwards and it's not unusual for democracy to be a partisan issue in some authoritarian regimes where they actually Allow, you know opposition parties to run Some of them do put democracy on the platform now They know that that will never happen because they don't have the power, but it's a partisan issue in Developing countries, you know democracy may be on the platform of an emerging political party, and I mean look I Shouldn't have to explain why this is troublesome We're seeing a party shift so far to the right that They don't even pretend to care about democracy. They're openly trying to undermine democracy and it's not just Donald Trump and Mike Pence anymore It's the Republican Party and their base who is doing this who's embracing authoritarianism and This is only the beginning


Therefore, it is now time for the question period. The Leader of Her Majesty's Mayoral Opposition. Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Premier. Yesterday, five different MPPs asked the Premier if she had confidence in her Minister of Health. They asked whether the Premier would fire him or shuffle him out of the Minister of Health portfolio. Despite all the cuts, the Premier wouldn't answer the question. Five times and five times she avoided answering the question. So it's clear, if the Premier agrees with the cuts, she will prove him as Minister of Health. If she doesn't agree with the cuts, she will shuffle him out. Mr. Speaker, here is a crystal clear question. Will the Minister of Health still have his job as Minister of Health after his death? And, Mr. Speaker, does the Premier have confidence in him? Thank you. I am trying to deal with that site. The members will come to order and I'm not going to tolerate that constantly. Premier? Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have confidence in my Minister of Health. I have confidence in my Cabinet. I have confidence in my top, Mr. Speaker. We are making investments across the province, in hospitals, in schools, in transit, in transportation, Mr. Speaker, in roads and bridges across the province. We are making investments, Mr. Speaker, in this province that are going to stand this province in good stead into the future that are going to make us more prosperous. Our economy is growing. We're one of the leaders in the country, Mr. Speaker. We are leading this country with our diverse, strong economy. Do I have confidence? Start the clock please. Supplementary. Mr. Speaker, again to the Premier, well it will be with extreme disappointment to Ontario nurses, physicians and patients that you stand by this embattled health minister. You know I toured the Scarborough Hospital yesterday and again I got to see- I'm sorry, stop the clock. I am now going to move to individuals and I'm going to start with a member from Beaches East York and that's not helpful when I'm trying to get the other side to come to order and that goes for everybody. I'm coming to every individual today. Please finish. Mr. Speaker, touring the Scarborough Hospital is able to realize the negative effects of these liberal cuts. You know who put it best actually? Former Liberal MPP Bass Balkansen who described the situation in Scarborough as not meeting the needs of modern medicine and yet the Scarborough Hospital wasn't on the government's past capital projects, not in their future plans. All the government does is fund more studies. The hospital staff feel they're not even on the radar with this government. So Mr. Speaker, will the Premier put the hacksaw away and finally give the Scarborough Hospital the support they deserve? Minister of Health and Long-Term Care is going to want to comment on the Scarborough issue but Mr. Speaker, I think it is really important to recognize that this is the leader of a party that has consistently voted against and opposed the investments that we are making in health care. A billion dollars in our budget, Mr. Speaker, the leader of the opposition and their party voted against that and opposed those investments, Mr. Speaker, and $345 million more for hospitals. New funding, Mr. Speaker, $12 billion, Mr. Speaker, to build and renovate hospitals around the province, $50 million, Mr. Speaker, a year to deal with maintenance and deferred maintenance issues, Mr. Speaker, all of those investments. The leader of the opposition has opposed. They have voted against. It's a bit rich, Mr. Speaker, but we need to stand up and say that we need to invest more. Thank you. Final supplementary. Mr. Speaker, back to the Premier. I proudly opposed a budget that cut 1,400 nurses. I proudly opposed a budget that took 800 million from physicians to take away from patient care. But let's be very specific about the Scarborough Hospital. The operating rooms are the oldest in the province, created in 1956. The staff at the Scarborough Hospital told me they're half the size they're supposed to be. And to such an extent, they have to put the equipment in the operating room in the hallways. It is unacceptable for patient care. Seven years ago, the province did a study saying they unequivocally needed new operating rooms. You have sat on the news for seven years that these operating rooms don't meet the standards of modern medicine. So my question, Mr. Speaker, is will you finally show the respect to the people of Scarborough by giving them the new operating rooms and taking their own studies? The member from Renfrew, Nipissing Pembroke, come to order. Premier. Long-term care. Mr. Speaker, long-term care. That the opposition, the official opposition, has finally demonstrated some interest in Scarborough. I don't recall the last two years a single healthcare question about Scarborough. I don't know if the timing is coincidental. But I was recently in Scarborough myself, Mr. Speaker. And I stood side by side with every MPP from Scarborough and from Durham as we announced the result of a one-year focus on healthcare in Scarborough. Where we announced a $19 million contribution to Scarborough General Hospital for diagnostic imaging. So we announced a $5 million planning grant for both Durham and Scarborough regions so we could build new infrastructure. Where we announced a $4.5 million increase in operating funds this year for Rouge Valley Hospital. $3 million in new funds for Scarborough Hospital and $2.6 million more for Lakers, Mr. Speaker. Thank you. The Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport will come to order. New question, the Leader of the Opposition. Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Premier. A couple of weeks ago, the Global Mail acquired a 57-page climate change action plan. The document was stamped Cabinet Confidential. Now we all know about Cabinet Confidential and it's an important part of our system, important principle of our parliamentary system. It is a serious breach of trust and ethics to leak Cabinet documents. Mr. Speaker, thanks to the Global Mail, we also know the Premier doesn't trust her own Cabinet. So Mr. Speaker, my question is, does the Premier know which minister walked out of Cabinet with this confidential document? Mr. Speaker, you know, I fear of the opposition. Really, like his former colleague in the Wild Rose in Alberta, really doesn't want to talk about climate change. We have to take this challenge on head on, Mr. Speaker, that we must make change. We must tackle this, Mr. Speaker, because we have a responsibility as a jurisdiction in Canada, but as part of the globe. And so the changes that we're making, Mr. Speaker, the cap and trade, the climate change action plan that we're putting in place is going to drive innovation in this province. It's going to drive down greenhouse gas emissions, Mr. Speaker, and it's going to help Canada to meet its commitment in the global crisis. Mr. Speaker, again to the Premier, my question was actually about the Cabinet leak, but I'll ask another question. According to the Global Mail, the Premier believes some ministers are not pulling their weight. And to be honest, I happen to agree with the Premier. He isn't pulling their weight. Is it the Minister of Children and Youth Services that took away IBI therapy from five-year-old children with autism? Is it the Minister of Health who fired recklessly 1,400 nurses? Is it the Minister of Community and Social Services that has thrown away $292 million on computer systems that don't work? Mr. Speaker, can the Premier tell us exactly which minister she thinks isn't pulling their weight and what was it, which one of them leaked the Cabinet document? Thank you. The member from Anglinton, Lawrence, come to order. The member from Anglinton, Lawrence, second time. Premier. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Well, once again, I would say to the leader of the opposition, I actually do understand why he would want to lower himself to make personal divisive attacks because he cannot, he cannot take on the challenge of talking about climate change. The member from Prince Edward Hastings. Finish, please. Crystal clear, Mr. Speaker, that we on this side of the House see it as our responsibility to tackle this threat that is probably the greatest threat that humanity has ever faced, Mr. Speaker, the fact that we have taken the largest initiative in North America by shutting down the coal-fired plants doesn't mean we can rest on our laurels, Mr. Speaker. It means that we have to move ahead and we have to take initiative that leads the country and leads the globe in terms of developing innovation and technology to tackle the greenhouse gas emissions on this planet, Mr. Speaker. I will supplement you. Mr. Speaker, back to the Premier. The personal and divisive comments that I was attributing are sourced to you. The Premier of Ontario, Mr. Speaker, one other reference to the Premier's opinions. Liberal sources went on to tell the globe that the Premier believes longer-serving members of cabinet are not particularly effective communicators. Again, I happen to agree with the Premier. Just look at the Minister of Education and how she blew millions of dollars on pizza parties and hotel rooms. Or look at the Minister of Energy, who told us that the gas plant scandal was going to cost a cup of coffee. Let's not forget the Minister of Environment that told us that they were going to ban both nuclear and natural gas. Now, someone in this cabinet leaked this ridiculous plan to ban natural gas. So, Mr. Speaker, instead of throwing one of these Ministers under the bus, is she interested in going to take responsibility for this cabinet leak and the ridiculous plan to ban natural gas? Thank you. Thank you. The member from the Renfrew Nipissing Pembroke, second time. Premier. Mr. Speaker, the comments attributed to me about my team are false. I made it clear one other. And here's what we're going to do with the bus. We're going to make sure the bus is clean. Mr. Speaker, we're going to make sure that it's emissions-free and we're going to make sure that we have a province that is a leader in fighting climate change. New question. The leader of the third party. Thank you, Speaker. My question is for the Premier. The Premier did not run on a platform to sell Hydro-1. In fact, she stood in this house and said straight from her own lips that it was not for sale. And she promised at the same time, Speaker, that she was going to be open and transparent. 80% of the people of Ontario want to keep Hydro-1 public. And over 200 municipalities say the same thing. Not a single Ontarian voted for the sell-off of Hydro-1, but today, for the very first time in the history of our province, private shareholders' meetings are happening across the street, Speaker, because this Premier broke her promise. Will the Premier do the right thing and stop selling off any further shares of Hydro-1? Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. And I know that the leader of the third party knows that I ran on a platform that was designed to invest in infrastructure across this province. And what that means, Mr. Speaker, is to build transit, build roads, bridges. And we talked about assets, Mr. Speaker. We talked about a review of assets that was going to generate revenue to allow us to make those investments, Mr. Speaker. The leader of the third party was clear about that because she started opposing it right from the get-go because she opposed those investments in transit, Mr. Speaker. She imposed those investments in expanding the northern highways. She opposed those investments in hospitals and schools around the province, Mr. Speaker, because she fundamentally opposed the investments in infrastructure that is so desperately needed for this economy. That's what we ran on, Mr. Speaker, and that's exactly what we're doing. Thank you. Supplementary? Mr. Speaker, what I fundamentally oppose is a Premier who is not telling the truth to the people of this province around the... I'm going to ask the member to withdraw because you can't say indirectly what you can't say directly. Actually withdraw, Mr. Speaker, and I do withdraw. Thank you. Mr. Speaker, what I fundamentally oppose is a government that doesn't tell the people of the province their intention to sell off a revenue-generating asset that belongs to the people of this province paying attention to what the financial accountability officer of this province says, which is, in fact, the worst way to try to fund infrastructure is to sell off... ...assets owned by the people of Ontario to better produce value, to reinvest in new assets, to have even greater returns. And that's exactly what's happening. We now have a corporation that is more improved, more customer-focused. It has greater investments that's increased value for the shareholders, which are the people of Ontario right now, and it's unlocked billions of dollars needed. Member from Hamilton, East Tony Creek, second time. Minister? It's unlocked billions of dollars of needed capital to invest in infrastructure, which the member opposite has opposed. More importantly, the foregone revenue the member talks about is, in fact, made up by greater returns that's being had as a result of the investments that we make, Mr. Speaker. That's right. Thank you. Final supplementary. Speaker, selling off Hydro One will shoot the rates through the roof. It happens every time there is a privatization of Hydro, regardless of where in the world it has happened, and it started with Mike Harris right here in the province of Ontario and this previous financial accountability officer, the independent financial accountability officer, says it will actually cost us money, Speaker. It means a bigger deficit and less money for transit and infrastructure. The evidence is clear. The Liberal claims simply are not based in reality. They are nothing but Liberal Party spin. Will this previous stop the sell off before it is too late, Speaker? Thank you, Minister. Mr. Speaker, talking about spin, the member opposite knows all too well. The Ontario Energy Board actually sets the rates. It won't be Hydro One. She also knows that we're doing this in strontius to minimize the risk, unlike what happened with the sale of 407. We still retain the largest ownership of Hydro One, a much more improved company, and the markets have indicated the fact that the reaction to the Hydro One process is making it more valuable, is providing even greater dividends to the province, and no one can have more than 10% ownership of Hydro One, which minimizes the very risk that the member is talking about. The majority of the province, the majority of the company is still owned by retail investors that are Ontarians, as well as the province of Ontario. It's better for the province. It's more money for infrastructure. It's better for our economy, Mr. Speaker. Thank you. Thank you, Speaker, back to the Premier, but I have to say our priority is people, not the market. Please carry on. Thank you, Speaker. Ontarians want to know that when their loved ones need care, when their hospital is safe, and that it's been properly repaired, Speaker. The records show the ones that New Democrats got, just how much repair work is needed at each hospital in Ontario collectively. It's over $3.2 billion, Speaker, of repair backlogs. But the government has censored which hospitals actually need the work. Will this Premier actually be open and transparent and show Ontarians the respect they deserve and release the complete list? Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Speaker, I know what the leader of the third party is suggesting. She wants to actually reveal in advance of any bidding process to potential contractors, to bidders. She wants to reveal what the hospital and the Ministry of Health and the government think is the cost of renovating or improving or maintaining a facility. To give that unfair advantage in a bidding process which would enable those potential bidders to actually reflect what they believe that they can get rather than the best prices what government should be looking for. But it's important to note as well that when we look at the issue of deferred maintenance it doesn't simply represent a total of all the necessary repairs required to enable a hospital to deliver quality services. They represent the dollars that would be required to upgrade all hospitals in Ontario to brand new hospital status. Quotations, brand new hospital status, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, supplementary. Because this has nothing to do with contractors it happens to be to do with the rights of people to know what's happening in their local hospitals. Yesterday the Ministry of Health told reporters that hospitals with the greatest repair needs include entirely new builds. He apparently clarified this a little while later to say that some of this might be in places where hospitals may be actually replaced. But of course the government isn't releasing the names of those hospitals so the Liberals are asking Ontarians to just take their word for it. We don't know a hospital that needs $200 million in maintenance is slated to be replaced in a year in 20 years or at all, Speaker. Until the government releases the facts they're expecting Ontarians to just trust them. Will this Premier show Ontarians the respect that they deserve and release the complete list? Thank you. Mr. Speaker. I know that the leader of the third party wants to completely disrupt if not destroy the competitive bidding process. It would be completely inappropriate, for example for a new build as well to actually provide a dollar value estimate from the government in terms of what we think that is required to build that new hospital or to renovate it. It's ludicrous, quite frankly, Mr. Speaker. But I'm proud of this government's record of past investment. We have 35 new or highly renovated hospital projects underway in the province right now as we speak, Mr. Speaker. We're investing $12 billion in new capital spends over the next 10 years. $100 million each and every year just specifically for maintenance. For deferred maintenance, it would be the example of your house of what it would cost to rebuild your house so it is in brand new status. That's a very different thing than what's required to provide quality health care. That's right. More than $3.2 billion is needed to fix our hospitals just to keep them safe and prevent imminent breakdowns. That was what was reported in the FOI that we received from this minister's staff of his ministry. He better read the FOI that we received but according to the auditor, Ontario is falling behind each and every year when it comes to making those investments. In fact, the auditor said, and I quote, in the last five years hospitals spent on average $45 million of their operating funds that should be going to patient care hospital and other funding needs and this is happening at the same time that the liberals froze hospital operating budget speaker for four straight years.  Well, Mr. Speaker, it's precisely in response to our agreement with the auditor general's report that we put substantial new funds into the budget that was recently approved so I'm not sure what the leader of the third party is referring to and why they chose not to support a budget that agreed with the auditor general that invested more money, $12 billion in capital, doubling our maintenance, the deferred maintenance from $50 million a year to $100 million a year, we're making those investments notwithstanding them voting against the budget we responded to the auditor general's report, we've responded to the needs that have been identified for us on our behalf by the hospitals across the province but it's important to recognize what deferred maintenance is it's an estimation on a go-forward basis for a whole slew of activities that may need to be replaced in the coming years, we've got a plan to do that in an orderly responsible fashion that maintains the quality of care. Thank you. Thank you and good morning speaker my question is for the premier, this morning the financial accountability officer confirmed what we here already know, this government is neither open nor transparent he said it is quote highly disappointing that instead of looking to maximize information disclosure this government restricts disclosure this quote impedes the ability of MPPs to perform their duties of holding this government to account they have repeatedly missed reporting requirements under the fiscal transparency and accountability act since 2012 they cancel the gas plant scandal hearings, remove the legislature officer oversight on hydro one and regularly stonewall the FAO and auditor general from receiving necessary information I ask the premier, are cabinet leaks and criminal investigations the only way we can ever get the real facts here thank you very much let me talk about the financial accountability officer and we have a real respect for this office, the member opposite knows that we have worked Mr. Speaker ministeries work closely with the FAO, the member opposite knows that we worked with the opposition parties and we recognize during a minority parliament we work together to establish the office of the FAO Mr. Speaker and both the legislation and the office of the financial accountability officer were modeled after the parliamentary budget officer Mr. Speaker that was the agreement and the discussion that we talked about with the opposition it is the office and the parameters of his job of that office are modeled after the parliamentary budget officer Mr. Speaker that is the work that we did together member from leeds granville second time supplementary the FAO told us there is quote a broader pattern of refusals for access to information he also said the government stonewalling has quote made it difficult to assess the plausibility of the government's financial projections and to evaluate risks that those projections would ever be met he doesn't trust their numbers the FAO said the government is holding documents and shocked us speaker by saying quote I believe this is political direction this is unbelievable from back room deals to stonewalling officers of the legislature this government only does what's best for the liberal party Speaker will the premier end this pattern of obstruction and give the FAO the necessary documents to do his job Mr. Speaker I want to reiterate that we work very closely with the financial accountability officer the first of its kind in Canada for a province to undertake additionally thank you minister we respect the work that the financial accountability officer does for our province it is why we put in place the opportunities to have more forward thinking and review of the actions that we take additionally we will be sending a government-wide directive to all officials that offices are responding to the FAO in a consistent and timely manner Mr. Speaker to be clear requests for information from the FAO are responded by non-partisan officials it's not by the political staff and during the minority government all parties work together to establish the FAO and the legislation that governs the office we are working within those parameters will continue to work collaboratively with the FAO Mr. Speaker thank you very much Mr. Speaker my question is to the premier the NDP fought hard to ensure that the legislature and MPPs had a financial accountability officer here New Democrats believe in independent oversight when the legislation was written no one expected the premier and the Liberal government to deny the financial accountability officer the information he needs to do his job this morning the FAO called and he said and I quote it is highly disappointing that instead of looking to maximize the information that the government can provide to MPPs and through them all Ontarians the government is focusing on how it can restrict disclosure of information why is this premier trying to undermine yet another independent watchdog Mr. Speaker you see this please thank you Mr. Speaker we value the work that the financial accountability officer does we are working collaboratively with them we recognize the necessity for timely manner in which information is received we also recognize a duty that we have in regards to confidentiality requirements in the work that we do and I know the member opposite respects that and if they don't they should continue to work with the financial accountability officer to provide the information necessary the member from the member from Renfrew Nipissing Pembroke is warned you've got two Mr. Speaker we'll continue to work with the FAO as we always have thank you supplementary Mr. Speaker the Liberals have tried to undermine the auditor general of this province they have fought with the Ombudsman now they're refusing to give to the financial accountability officer the information that he needs to assess the financial impact of this government's decisions Mr. Speaker there is a pattern here this government seems to have a problem with transparency and accountability and openness as the FAO has said this morning and I quote they are saying they're an open government and I'm saying let's see the data to show that you're open now the Premier talks a lot about transparency will she be open with Ontario's independent non-partisan financial accountability officer or will she continue to Stonewall Minister Mr. Speaker we will continue to work with the FAO I talked with him on an ongoing basis my officials even yesterday met with the FAO because we recognize how important the work he does and must have information on time within the confines in fact the FAO recently said with respect to the concept of cabinet confidentiality yes they do need to have cabinet confidentiality we do require some degree of confidentiality when we're putting forward some of the issues we recognize as well that the FAO as well as the Auditor General requires information when it's available and at this point in time we will make everything available a directive is being sent across the ministry to ensure that the officials and the cabinet who does have ongoing relationship with the FAO to provide the information that is required within the act that that member approved and supported Mr. Speaker thank you thank you Mr. Speaker my question is for the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs yesterday I was so proud to be in this room to hear the Premier apologize to survivors of residential schools for this dark chapter in our history and the lasting impacts it still has for Indigenous peoples the Premier announced as part of her apology a new strategy to bring meaningful change to the lives of Indigenous people and the communities in the spirit of reconciliation called the journey together Ontario's action plan for reconciliation with Indigenous peoples can the Minister please tell us more about this action plan and tell us why it is so important for our relationship with Indigenous peoples in Ontario Mr. Speaker I thank the member for that very important question since the release of the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission last December the Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs has been working across ministries to prepare Ontario's response to this document it is a whole of government response we are taking action on the recommendations it is a priority for this government I am very pleased to reiterate that commitment with yesterday's announcement of the document the journey together this is another step on the path to reconciliation but it is not the end of the journey there is much much work to be done to do together with our Indigenous partners and all Ontarians and genuine reconciliation a reality thank you Mr. Speaker Thank you Mr. Speaker it is wonderful to hear that the government is honouring the commitments it has made to address the legacy of residential schools and work with Indigenous partners to develop a new path forwards towards reconciliation I know that taking action on the recommendations contained in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission report is a priority for the Ontario government and that we are committed towards achieving true reconciliation I understand that the action plan builds on positive first steps already taken by our government to strengthen the partnerships based on mutual respect and shared benefits could the minister please tell us more about the steps our government will take to bring real change to the lives of Indigenous peoples Thank you Minister Speaker the journey together Ontario's commitment to reconciliation with Indigenous peoples is aimed at improving social, economic and health outcomes through five broad themes the themes are one understanding the legacy of residential schools two plugging the gaps and removing the barriers creating a culturally relevant and responsive justice system four supporting Indigenous culture and five reconciling relations with Indigenous peoples Ontario plans to invest $253 million over the next three years on programs and actions guided by these five themes which are in turn a response to the 94 recommendations of the TRC report shaped by the document the journey together Ontario along with Indigenous partners and the federal government will work to achieve measurable change for Indigenous communities it's long required Mr. Speaker my question is for the Premier Ontario is a vibrant province with a rich and diverse culture our pluralism makes us stronger freedom of religion is fundamental and we love and enjoy in Canada in Sikhism the wear into the turban is an essential symbol of identity of the members of the Sikh faith and now it's time for a motorcycle helmet exemption for Sikh riders like the one that exists in British Columbia Manitoba and the United Kingdom Mr. Speaker will the Premier commit to amending the Highway Traffic Act to accommodate the rights of Sikhs to display their faith thank you Mr. Speaker we have to strike the right balance between public safety and religious accommodation it is absolutely critical Mr. Speaker we're very proud of our record of road safety in Ontario we consistently rank among the safest roads in North America Mr. Speaker in Ontario we know that riders without helmets involved in a collision had a 17% greater risk of being killed or seriously injured 17% Mr. Speaker I will say to the heckler opposite I never I have never said that this is something that we would do there are people in this room who know that I said and my caucus knows that we would look at it we would look for the evidence Mr. Speaker and the evidence points to safety requiring a helmet on motorcycles Mr. Speaker supplementary Mr. Speaker again to the premier standing up for freedom of religion shouldn't be something you only do at the calcid day parade or before an election it is something that you should do each and every day members of the community some who are present here today feel betrayed by the premier they feel that she went back on her promise and it's not just the premier going back on her promise it's every member of your caucus in peel so I will try again will you honor your promise will you honor the promise that the members of your government made will you do the right thing and support the member of prince from prince Edward Hastings and his bill to amend the highway traffic act to accommodate members of the seek thing thank you premier I have struggled with this issue I struggled with this issue when I was the minister of transportation and I have struggled with this issue as premier I understand the politics that the leader of the opposition is playing but he is perpetrating a falsehood I have never said that we would take this move and when we know that wearing helmets mean that injury rates go down 75% I will not be the premier who stands in front of a mother who has been killed because he was not wearing a helmet I will not be that premier I am going to make sure that we do everything we can thank you new question the member from kanora reaney river thank you speaker to the premier in april as rea coco penes a 14 year old girl and member of the grassy narrows first nation walked away from the lake of the woods hospital in kanora and she was found dead two days later there's a lot we don't know about what happened to as rea why did the police drop her off at the hospital why did she walk away but what we do know from her father is that as rea needed help as rea was involved in the child welfare system and under the care of the hospital when she went missing speaker will the premier commit to bring the coco penes family and her community of grassy narrows some peace and back their call for a corners thank you thank you thank you speaker I want to thank the member for this important question and whenever a child in the welfare system or outside of it is devastated as described here we are all deeply concerned and speaker we know there's more work to do in the child welfare system and we're working very hard for our indigenous partners for reforming that system and supporting culturally appropriate services and programs to those communities and quite frankly speaker looking at the broader system as well to make sure that children care are front and centre and that those children's best interests are always put first and foremost so we work very closely with our indigenous partners on child welfare reform when it comes to those communities and we'll continue that work with them to be clear these services don't exist they don't even exist in canora where families are told that they have to travel 500 kilometres to thunder bay to access some of these very basic mental health services for youth speaker yesterday's announcement of the truth and reconciliation process we recognize the need to listen to be humble to acknowledge the powerful legacy of our relationship with first nations but we need to do more than just acknowledge we need action on this mental health crisis resulting from this legacy for first nations especially for young people a coroner's inquest is required here what response does the premier have to azrea's family and for the community of grassy narrows which is already reeling from environmental devastation and what action is the premier prepared to take thank you minister thank you speaker and yesterday was indeed a very important day in fact i held a third round table with our matey onwa and family friendship centres to develop the work further on our soon to be renamed indigenous child and youth strategy and a big part of that is making sure we have the right mental health supports for indigenous children both from a prevention point of view as well as when children in those communities enter care the minister health has announced additional funding to support the mental health and addiction strategy and we recognize that additional supports are always required and we've supported training for Aboriginal mental health and addiction workers with annual funding of three million dollars is there more to do yes and i'm happy to talk one on one with this member but this particular thank you minister speaker my question is for the attorney general our government is committed to ending chronic homelessness in ten years we're also delivering on our priority of targeting youth homelessness we know that LGBTQ to spirited youth experience far higher rates of homelessness than other young people these grim statistics reflect the toll that homophobia and transphobia take on our youth they face violence and harassment in our schools within families and other communities they have rejection of their sexual identity which is integral to who they are Mr. Speaker could the minister please tell us what this government is doing to help support LGBTQ to spirited youth in Ontario thank you attorney general we thank you Mr. Speaker I want to thank the member from Kitchener Centre for an important question every young person as they grow and develop needs a supportive home and a caring adult to help them reach their full potential just this morning the premier announced that our government is supporting the outreach program to support crisis centre for LGBTQ youth runs by equal Canada human rights trust we are providing up to 1.5 million in funding for this dropping crisis centre over three years it gives young people who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless an array of crucial services too often our communities youth avoid seeking help because of encounters with homophobia and transphobia at other institutions equal offer them accepting and welcoming place to get the kind of help that can make a profound difference in their life thank you Mr. Speaker thank you Mr. Speaker and I'd like to thank the minister for her answer and for her attention and her commitment to this very important issue we know that this mental health support crisis centre offers an accepting and welcoming place to get the kind of help that makes a profound difference in a young person's life now on Wednesday the premier is going to be attending the pride flag raising at Queens Park this is a very important symbol of Ontario's commitment to equality minister despite how far we have come over the past few decades we still have a very long way to go for example Ontario's current law on who can't form a family is outdated as it does not reflect present realities minister can you please tell this house what you are doing to ensure that Ontario's laws do reflect acceptance for all families thank you attorney general yes Mr. Speaker first let me thank the member from Parkdale I park for bringing forward a private member bill that would modernize our legislation we are committed as I said last week to fixing this as the premier said this morning she asked me to bring forward legislation in September that would if pass ensure that all parents are clearly recognizing Ontario whether they be gay or straight and whether their children are conceived with or without assistance so this legislation the premier asked me to work with the member from Parkdale I park and stakeholders to craft a bill based on the work that has already been done by the uniform law conference of Canada the conference consulted with province stakeholders and legal expert in preparing its guidance it provides a solid starting point for an Ontario bill and British Columbia and Alberta are already have this bill in place so Mr. Speaker because we would like to see the definition changing Ontario by the end of this year question is to the minister of children and youth minister let me share the story of Chelsea and her son Charlie on May 4th Charlie was told he was being terminated from IBI therapy as of September just in time for Charlie to go to school problem is minister Charlie isn't ready for school he hasn't achieved half of his developmental goals so Charlie is expected to go to school in September because he needs to succeed Charlie is being set up to fail it's not right and it's not fair I will ask the minister again will she reverse her decision and allow children like Charlie to continue receiving IBI therapy until he has met his developmental goals thank you speaker and I want to thank my critic for the question as well it's important to remember for children with IBI therapy currently they will continue in IBI therapy until their next assessment and I think there's a myth out there a myth that needs to be clarified that these children after a clinical assessment are not automatically dropped they will be assessed and their future treatment will be recommended by a clinician and a transition plan will be established it's important to remember too speaker that IBI and ABA are essentially the same thing the difference is the difference is speaker intensity of the service what we're moving to what we're moving to speaker is a system that moves away from extreme choices and we are building a model thank you member from Dufferin Palace of Income to order supplementary it is very frustrating speaker it's not getting through this is not a myth from Chelsea's email and I quote my son Charlie was terminated from IBI at his six month progress service he is not ready for school Charlie has waited two years to start IBI therapy only to be told he's out in September no appeal no transition no direct funding option I will ask a game on behalf of the children like Charlie and the thousands of kids in Ontario with ASD will the minister reverse her decision to remove IBI therapy for kids over five until she has a coordinated provincial autism strategy in place thank you minister speaker my commitment to families and these children is that they will have a personalized plan of care that is responsive to their needs and to their changing circumstances speaker families have asked us for this and providers have been asking for this experts have said this that's exactly why we're doing this speaker and I'm very pleased to say speaker that we're working very closely with members of the community when it comes to the connections program to ensure smooth transitions well before a child goes into the school system and while they start in the school system I'm also very pleased to report speaker that as of this point over 434 families have met with their service provider that just happened in a week speaker over half of the involved families have had their first meeting some are taking second meetings we're monitoring these situations the case by case with the families we're listening to the families are saying and we're taking the member from Dufferin Caledon second time the member from Hamilton Mountain second time and the member from Leeds Grenville is Warren new question the member from Nickelbelt my question is for the Premier yesterday the day we apologized to our First Nation people the Premier said that she did not know the source and had not read the report into the cleanup option for the mercury poisoning the First Nations people we have very much the same issue it is, the government appointed working group and I don't know why no one in the government has read it because they got the report back in April so it is disappointing to hear in response to the report yesterday the Ministry of the Environment said and I quote currently there is no evidence to suggest that mercury levels natural sedimentation remediation would be warranted. Does the Premier think that this is an acceptable response to the First Nations people of grass in the air? The recommendations of the report, Mr. Speaker. And from those recommendations, it's not very clear exactly what the solution is. If the member opposite looks through the recommendation, she will see that the first recommendation starts with putting in place some field studies, Mr. Speaker, to determine whether there is mercury still leaking, Mr. Speaker, and to determine whether capping or whether dredging or whether some other solution would be the answer, Mr. Speaker. So I said yesterday I had not read the report. The report has been read, Mr. Speaker, in government. I have now looked at the recommendations and I certainly will be talking with the Minister of the Environment to see if that recommendation around field studies, if that's something that we can do. But I've rest assured, Mr. Speaker, there is no clear direction in that report that points to a simple solution. It is a complex issue. There may be some solutions that have arisen in the last three years, Mr. Speaker, but there is no one solution that's going to solve the mercury problem at Grassley Narrows. Thank you. A supplementary question. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, the report says that remediation can be enhanced by applying a layer of clay to the source of the sediments, very much like we have done in my writing, with similar problem. It is safe, it is cheap, and it is an effective method. Leaders at Grassley Narrows First Nations travel again, the 1,700 kilometers, to come to Queen's Park to plea with this government to act to clean up the river that is poisoning them. Two years ago, Chief Steve Forbeser had to starve himself on the lawn of Queen's Park to get a meeting with this government, and it took a Japanese research team to fly around the world to get that research restarted. So, Mr. Speaker, my questions for the good people of Grassley Narrows is simple. When will the Premier clean up the mercury contamination in the Waibegun River and Clay Lake? Thank you. Mr. Speaker, I have sat in the community hall at Grassley Narrows. I have heard from residents who have been affected, some of whom have gotten compensation, others from surrounding communities have not, and the discussion that was referenced in terms of the Japanese expert and the issues around minimated disease. Mr. Speaker, I have heard those concerns. I have also heard from scientists, Mr. Speaker, who have differing views about how that water can be cleaned up and how the mercury can be dealt with, Mr. Speaker. As I said, the report that I have now seen that I have looked at, Mr. Speaker, suggests that there is a need for some field studies to look at what the possibilities might be, Mr. Speaker. Answer. You know, the member office can pick one solution. There are partial solutions. The report says that there are certain sections of the river starting downstream that might be dealt with. Thank you. We're going to look at that report, Mr. Speaker, and make a decision. Thank you. New question. The member from Glengarry, Prescott Russell. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Speaker. My question is to the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. Mr. Speaker, this question is in good taste. Mr. Speaker, summer weather has arrived. And barbecue season has arrived. Mr. Speaker, my mouth waters when I speak of all the folks across the province that will be grilling seasoned steaks, barbecuing steaks, and beef hamburgers.  I was excited to hear how important beef farming is in Ontario. Cattle farming in our great province generates almost nine billion in retail sales every year. But, Mr. Speaker, with beef from other provinces and countries sold in our grocery stores, can the Minister explain how the government is supporting Ontario's beef farmers to help ensure that they remain competitive? Mr. Speaker, I want to really thank the member from Glengarry, Prescott Russell for that very meaty question this morning. Mr. Speaker, remember the famous Wendy's commercial? When Dave Thomas was there, the little lady came up and said, where's the beef? The beef will be out front at Queen's Park. Corn-fed beef, I recommend everybody get out there and sample the very best beef that Ontario has to offer. As the members indicated, beef is a very important part of Ontario's agri-food sector, responsible for 9,500 jobs in primary production and another 9,000 jobs in processing. Last year, seven days a week, Ontario exported 58 million kilograms of chilled and frozen beef worth $355 million. This government, from the Made in Ontario risk management program to cross-sharing and are going forward too, and farmers can access a range of programs to support sustainable growth. Today, Mr. Speaker, I want to focus on a program unique to big farming in Ontario, the Peter Catterlow program, and I'll talk about it in a minute. Yes, you will. Supplementary. Very much, Mr. Speaker, and thank you to the hardworking and articulate Minister of Agriculture Food and Rural Affairs for that response. It's good to know that our government is ensuring that beef farmers have access to a wide range of programs that will support the growth and help new farmers get started. By working together, Ontario can support a thriving cattle industry across the province. Since being established, the Peter Catterlow guarantee program has supported nearly 1.53 billion in direct economic activity. And there's also, Mr. Speaker, never once has there been a claim against the government's guarantee in the history of the program. So in order to improve the program, the beef farmers of Ontario have been asking the government to increase the maximum individual loan limits under the Peter Catterlow guarantee program and increase the loan guarantee. Can the hardworking minister elaborate on the improvements that the government has made to the Peter Catterlow program? Thank you, Minister. Mr. Speaker, I want to say that the member for Gladbury Presscott Russell to supplementary. That was as sizzling as sizzling supplementary. Mr. Speaker, this morning, we had a great honour working with our industry. At 7 a.m., we made the announcement that effectively, immediately in the profits of Ontario, we are doubling the cap of the Peter Catterlow program. That is, Mr. Speaker, the program is going from $130 billion to $260 billion per year. This, along with changes that we made last year to double the individual lending limits, will allow more farmers access to competitive interest rates and new farmers to get into this exciting industry. We're also looking at making changes to make it access to our loan program. Mr. Speaker, this government stands with the farmers of the profits of Ontario. Thank you. My question is for the Attorney General. As the Attorney General knows, we've been working with local municipal officials, including regional chair Gary Carr, lawyers, and Halton area MPPs, to push for a new Halton courthouse. A new courthouse in Halton is urgently needed. The existing facility in Milton is aging, overcrowded, and completely inadequate in terms of security and privacy. Questions have even been raised about access to justice. When I raised this issue in question period in March of 2015, the Attorney General assured us that a new Halton courthouse was a priority. That was 14 months ago. Can the Attorney General update the House on the status of the planning process, which surely should be under way, for a new Halton courthouse? And what specific tech steps that she has taken to move this project forward? Thank you, Attorney General. Mr. President, for his question. Yes, the Milton courthouse is still our number one priority in our ministry, and we recognize that the Milton courthouse has many deficits. And, you know, Mr. Speaker, I hear it from my side, from the representative, the MPP from Burlington, Alton, Mrs. Auguste Redville, the Minister of Finance, the Minister of Labor. I think I will need security pretty soon, because I hear it. It's a priority. We're working on it. My ministry is already on the Milton courthouse. I visited the Milton courthouse. I know the situation, and we will keep you posted on the progress of this file. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much, Speaker. I would remiss to recognize three very important guests who was in the assembly with us. I want to recognize Joyce Craigle, who's an artist behind the exhibit, because he's 2016 and lives in my community of Ottawa Center. Also with her was Councillor Katherine McKenney, who represents the Somerside Ward community of Ottawa Center, along with her daughter, Kenny. I welcome them to Queen's Park. Thank you. I am going to say that that's not a point of order, and as a result of yesterday and some reflection of mine, we have set aside time to introduce people. If they're not in the house at that time, I would ask you to introduce them anyway. This is going to become a problem for us that we keep expanding the times in which we use, and we're right now in between so I'm going to ask all members to be sensitive to the fact that these after-the-fact things are happening and we should improve it. I remember from kids that were hastings on a point of order. Two guests that I was remissing. That's not a point of order. And I'm going to be insistent on that, people. We have a deferred vote and Government Notice of Motion Number 74 as amended related to arranging proceedings of Bill 201 Act to amend the Election Finances Act and the Taxation Act 2007. Collin, the members, this will be a five-minute bell. First, please take their seats. On May 30th, Mr. Nakvi moved Government Notice of Motion Number 74 which was amended to read as follows. Not that, not withstanding any standing order. Dispence? Dispence. All those in favour of the motion please as amended please rise one at a time be recognised by the clerk. Mr. Nakvi. Mr. Bradley. Mr. Bradley. Mr. material. Mr. Marriage. Mr. Backfield. Mr. Bradley. Mr. Bradley. Down May Ear. Mr. Susie. Mr. Susie. Mr. Zwayne.. As win. Miss Matthews. Miss Matthews. Mr. History. Miss Sandals. Mr. Misteada Dagger. Mr. catalyst. Mr. Kalam. Mr. Officer. Lowe. Mr. DeLine. Mr. electric. Mr. älou Pasteur. Mr. Mr. CRATL. Mr. 2LER WPLF Balance by ReรB for royals, Mr. being 18 I declare the motion carry as amended carry there are no further deferred votes this house stands recessed until 3 p.m. this afternoon


customers. So no obvious question that we asked ourselves is can data science help, right? Now, how did this all start, right? So just a bit of a history lesson. So like most of the innovations attributed to wars in the history, one thing that happened in the fashion industry was around the American Civil War. So before American Civil War, most of the apparels were made to measure. But the American Civil War called for mass recruitment of soldiers, and therefore a need for mass production of soldiers uniforms. And that was the starting point of ready-made apparels. Now, so while people try to fix one problem, this just led to other problems, right? So the problem of fitment, right? It was more glaring for the women apparel. And then this essentially led to the beginning of a lot of sizing standards. A lot of sizing standards came up during the period of 1958, 1983, and beyond. Unfortunately, none of these sizing standards stayed. And the primary reason for these standards to fail was that the sample on which these standards were based was just not representative of the actual women population. So it so happened that manufacturers shunned these standards, and they just defined their own sizing standards. And this was the beginning of fit models, right? So fit models entered around the same period. Each manufacturer had their own fit models, and the apparel and other products were tailored to the fit models. So this was just the beginning of all the chaos. So essentially, what makes fit so difficult is two things, right? One, there is lack of standardization across brands for the same size. So brands design their clothes differently using their own sizing standards. The other thing that is very commonly seen is this demon of vanity sizing, which is essentially that brands often tend to downsize their products just to appeal to their customers. So no two sizes feel the same across brands. And here's a simple example, right? So we have two formal shirts, one by phosphorus, the other one by Raymond. And you can see that although the size numbers are the same, the actual sizes vary a lot.  In the offline retail, for example, people have tried to address this somewhat by the use of mannequins or real models. There are three solutions. There are virtual fitting rooms. And on the other extreme, you have 360 degree body scanners, which take complete measurements of your customers. So all these solutions are essentially based on measuring up your customers and then recommending the products accordingly, right? So essentially, they measure up the customers and then map those measurements to product measurements. So all these solutions have been attempted online. So again, this requires them to get input on the use of measurements. And there are some solutions based on either visualization or just based on recommending the right size product to the customers based on the measurements entered by them. But again, all these solutions make and require the customers to explicitly enter their body measurements into the online portal. So of course, this is a very laborious process. Leads to a not very good experience for the users. And therefore, and of course, it's not scalable as well, right? Now our approach, on the other hand, is based on two primary assumptions. Firstly, we assume that we have, I mean the catalog data, we have access to the actual sizes of these products. We also assume that we have access to the sales data or some products that the customer already owns. And essentially the idea is that can we use the products that a customer already owns as a proxy of his or her body measurements? If we can do that, we can then essentially map those to the product sizes. So a successful sale to a customer, for example, is a signal of those products or the size of those products being fit for the customer. On the other hand, if a product leads to a return or exchange with a size issue related reason, then that is an indication of an incorrect fitment. So essentially there's a overall design of our approach, right? So we have these three data sources, primary data sources. We have the catalog size chart information and like I said, we assume access to the actual sizes of the products. Of course we have the sales data and the returns data. And so the pipeline essentially comprises of four key steps. The first step is that of clustering. So we basically, given the catalog data, we basically segment it into products of similar sizes. That gives us the clustered set of products. The next two steps then are to map the products as well as the customers to this common space of clusters. So there's a product cluster closeness scoring and there's also a customer cluster support scoring. And the fourth step is then to come up with a combined scoring using these two matrices and use that to recommend the right size products to our customers. So I'll run through each of this next. So this is the current state of affairs, right? So Bob here had made a past purchase of Francole and his shoe of size nine. And based on his past experience, when he's making current purchase, he selects a size nine shoe, a converse shoe again. But hey, it turns out that the earlier size that he had chosen was based on a UK size standard, while the current shoe that he is choosing is based on the US size standards. So of course it doesn't fit, right? And he has a poor experience. So, you know, all right, so clustering, right? So the first step that we did, that we do is, you know, we take the actual size data from our catalog and segment the products using clustering mechanism. This essentially gives us clusters of products, each cluster comprising of all the products which are similar in size. So we do this for different categories of products. And essentially we, at the end of it, we get clusters of products which are similar. So we used an implementation of K-Midoids. It's called Clara, which is essentially a clustering algorithm for large data. Essentially it uses, you know, takes samples of data for clustering and works very well for large volumes of data. K was empirically tuned just based on the inter-cluster distance as well as the intra-cluster distance between the products. So once we have, so once we do the product segmentation, the next step is to find the product cluster closeness. So this is a simple step where you essentially score each product and basically each product cluster pair based on its distance from that cluster and normalize it by the maximum distance between any two clusters. So essentially this gives us a two-dimensional matrix, a product by cluster matrix, where products of the same size tend to be in the same cluster. So you see the Frankel-Leone size nine shoe coming up in the cluster C2 and the converse size 10 shoe getting a high score for cluster C2. Right, so the other thing that we do is we score the customer cluster support and this is based on the sales and returns data. So essentially all the products that a customer has bought we kind of map it to the corresponding cluster and we end up with this matrix on the left side where we have a customer cluster, the number of sales that he has, number of purchases that he has done, he or she has done from that product from that cluster and come up with a score of how much is the customer, how much is the support for that cluster for that customer. So we use a simple walls technique to, it's essentially a technique to adjust for sparseness of the data. Given this matrix, we come up with a two-dimensional customer by cluster matrix where on each row we have a customer and it's support score for each of the clusters. All right. The last step then is to come up with a combined score based on the product cluster closeness and the customer cluster support. So given a new SKU that a customer is trying to buy, we essentially take all the products belonging to, so a product here is, so any product with a different size, it counts as a different product. So we take all the products belonging to that SKU, extract the matrix from the product cluster matrix that we had and just do a element-wise multiplication with the customer cluster support matrix and that gives us a final score for the product and the clusters. So on the right hand side, if you can just order that matrix, order the symbols and just take a row-wise max that will give you the product that we should recommend to that customer. So essentially what this does is that, now we are able to kind of recommend the right size to our customers. So a customer, who, so Bob here who tried to purchase a Converse SKU based on his past experience and selected size nine, we kind of interfere and then recommend size 10 SKU based on his past purchases. All right, so currently we have kind of evaluated this approach for the shoes category. Essentially what we did is that we used, we took all the data until certain time T and then use the next two months data for evaluating the model. So on an average, we see kind of encouraging accuracy. We see that about 88% of times we are able to accurately recommend the right size to our customers. But one interesting observation that we did have is that users often tend to buy for their friends and relatives and that poses an interesting challenge to then kind of recommend the right size to those customers. But then like I said, since we have a segmentation-based approach, so we know the support for each cluster for each customer. So even if a customer does buy different products belonging to different clusters, he or she will get a non-zero support score for these different clusters. And then so this essentially we can use to figure out the different profiles that a customer has and therefore during a fresh purchase, we can actually interfere and then probe a customer and check that his current purchase is going to be similar to which particular profile and use that additional input to then make a better recommendation to the customer. All right, so yeah, that's what I had. Thank you so much for listening. If there are any questions I can take. Hi, this is Shakti here. In your talk, you said that you have access to ground truth, right? There are two companies with two sizes who claim to be giving two different sizes but they are probably selling the same size shirt, for example. Phosphor says 41, Raymond says 49, but both of them are let's say 45 or something like that. You have access to the truth anyways. So what stops you from creating your own baseline and then just mapping all those numbers to your baseline and then using that to predict what, for example, if UK size nine maps to US size nine, then when he's choosing UK size 10 or something else, he can just ask him to predict US size nine, right? Because you can always map that. Yeah, actually, it's not that straightforward. Well, I mean, if you look at the actual sizes and the shoulder length and the length of the product, they tend to vary a lot even across different sizes. So it's not as straightforward as UK size nine mapping to a US size 10. I mean, sometimes there are, you know, the actual lengths might, you know, in one case, it might be let's say 30 centimeters. In the other case, it might be 30.2 or even 31 centimeters. So the actual size might actually vary a lot even though, you know, even for the same standards, the same standard size. Okay, so the first question that I had, you kind of answered it saying that, you know, we have people ordering for somebody else. And I think your answer to that was that you will have in the future profiles which the user would have to select. Is that correct? Yeah, so I mean, so currently, we don't have that additional input. So when a user is buying a certain product, we don't know who is buying for it. Because I think that is a major gap because at least in our country, we tend to be a guy who's technically savvy and he orders for everybody else. Yeah, I mean, 50% of the data that we see, I mean, there are cases where people tend to buy, and they have different multiple profiles. So we see users buying for cluster C1, but he also has bought for products from clusters, some other cluster. But since we have access to these different segments of products, so we know that this person has multiple profiles. So when he's making a fresh purchase, you know, we can kind of interfere and kind of tell him that, see, based on your past purchases, we seem to have, you know, you seem to have these multiple profiles. So if you're gonna tell us which profile are you buying for, then that can be an additional input. That's the other question that I had because the UI you showed, it would just show the size that you're recommending without any information saying that that's the recommendation that you're doing and based on analysis. So my question is, don't you think that's going to be a problem because what I would say is my size is eight, you put up 10, say, come on, the system is having a problem. I'll just go for eight anyways. So do you have any way of addressing that where you say that instead of showing UK or US standards, say that based on your previous purchases, this is the correct size that you should be using?  Right, it's gonna be a soft recommendation that, yes, yeah, I agree, yeah. The way it's presented, you know. Hey, yeah, so basically my question is around, so currently you were saying you are differentiating based on the type of a size. So UK size and US size, right? So let's say even in terms of a product segment, like if you are buying a casual shoe or a probably of floaters or actually the sport shoes, the size is different. So are you planning to have any type of those clustering as well? So no, I mean, it's not really based on the standards. Like I mentioned, we rely on the actual sizes of the shoe or any product, right? So we have access to, for example, in case of shoe, we have access to the length of the shoe or the width. Or in case of a shirt, we know the shoulder length and the actual length of the product. So that is what we use for clustering the products, not really the standard size. Hi, I have one question. Just reference to the previous question. Is it working? Sorry. Hello, I'm audible. Ashish, your question here. Yeah, just reference to the previous question. Suppose I use Raman Chat 42 size. And I'm going for some unfamiliar brand to me or I may use Adidas 9 size shoe. I want to buy Nike. So there can be a reference data for me, for the customer. See if you use this particular, you know, size nine of Adidas, you go for other brand. So this fits you. I mean, I'm talking from the point of view of customer because right now what I say is it's more of driven from the company towards customer. I mean, top to bottom, bottom to top. That's what I'm saying. Sorry, I didn't quite get your question. Suppose I use Raman 42, okay? I feel it comfortable. I go for some other. Yes. Alan Solly brand. So I'm not sure whether the 42 will fit me. Right. Okay, in that case, can the data help me out? Yes. You choose the right size for Alan Solly? Yes. Yes. So essentially, since we are using the actual dimensions of the product, right? So it might so happen that in that brand, you know, some other size 44 shirt might map to the same cluster just based on the actual dimensions of the size attributes of that product. Because most of your, I mean, analysis is based upon the historical data. If I'm a first-time customer. Well, if it's a first-time customer, yeah, so we do need that additional input. So if we can tell us what's there in your wardrobe. For example, we can, so for a customer who's first-time purchase customer, we can probe him for what's there in his wardrobe and use that information to do the mapping. Okay, sure. I have, excuse me. Can we just take it offline because otherwise it'll spill over. That's okay, sorry. Yes.


Hi, I'm Southern Shot and today is a major milestone for Blender because we're leaving the 2.X series and entering the official release of 3.0. So in celebration, instead of less than five minutes, we're gonna do all the features in less than three minutes. Do you think we can do it? No, immediately no. I tried, I gave up halfway through, there's just way too many features. But we can do it in less than five minutes? Actually, also no.  Animation and rigging got a lot of updates this time around and you can see some of these tools being used in the new Blender short, SpriteFright. Check it out. The new post-sliding operator, which allows you to drag in-between poses and create in-between keyframes without losing your pose. The in-between tools have also been improved and now use this new sliding tool. We have a new keying set making it possible to use one set for both characters and props. Custom bone shapes now have full translation, rotations, scale options. F-Curds and all their keys are now selectable by using the box or circle select on the curve itself. Animations can now be made as single users, which is helpful in productions linking assets. Motion Pass Preview has been improved and has a new update, all visible Motion Pass operator. Fogles have been added to the Bendy Bones and several other small options making it easier to control their start and end handles. Constraints now have Apply, Duplicate, and Copy options in their extra menu. Several constraints have seen additional small updates. Check out the link in the description for full details. Staying on the topic of animation, the Asset Browser now houses the Pose Library. The Pose Library allows you to store, apply, and organize various character poses. You can add and access these poses via the Asset Browser window and from the Animation panel in 3D View. Here you can add, blend, flip, apply and save different poses.  Using the Asset Browser, you can store, preview, and drop assets into your scenes. Even better, you can save these into libraries for repeated use. You can create large material libraries and drag and drop them into your scene quickly to experiment with look development. You can store HDRIs into your environments and quickly drop them into the 3D View to preview various lighting setups. It's fast and easy to use and if you create an asset, you might want to reuse it, just drag it into your library. These libraries can be saved locally and accessed via other project files, allowing you to create an organized repository of resources. This is milestone one with even more features on the way in the future. Gotta go fast, then Blender 3.0 has got you covered. Blend files with many linked libraries now load faster. Blend compression now uses a new algorithm which improves loading and saving times. Rendering is even faster, utilizing the magic of its amazing community, Blender now renders two to eight times faster using powers of love. Just kidding, this is a result of the Cycles X project. It utilizes a ton of hard work from the devs and improved GPU kernels and scheduling. Check out the Blender Fund page if you'd like to support them and show them love for all their effort. Back on topic, Cycles renders two to eight times faster in real world scenes, meaning production ready scenes and not just test render files. In fact, the more complex the file, the more optimized it is. Hair also renders much faster and baking now supports hardware ray tracing via NVIDIA optics. The viewport is also faster and more responsive in render mode. Even the tile memory usage has been improved meaning you will see a quicker preview of your full render if memory permits. The new recommended sampling workflows to set a noise threshold and let Blender determine the sample rates for you. You can also set a time-based rendering element and I found this super helpful when rendering animations. You can control the scrambling distance now in advanced panel. It's two to eight times faster, still too slow for you. Then turn on the new open image de-noise 1.4 update which improves normal passes even more, helping you keep those crisp texture details at lower sample rates. The shadow catcher has been re-rend and it now gives you options to exclude lighting, reflections and its own render pass making it easier to use in the compositor. This should make it easier to de-noise. The shadow terminator has new options to improve low-poly rendering. Subsurface scattering now supports anisotropy and index of refraction for random walk. Realistic screen has an anisotropy of around 0.8. AMD has also received some additional support in 3.0 and now supports RDNA architecture cards on Windows and the back end is based on the HIP platform. Patch notes for more details. AMD support on Linux and Apple Metal rendering support is under development for 3.1. The 3D viewport also got a speed bump with a new update that makes editing huge meshes two to three times faster and EV now supports attributes even those generated by geometry nodes. As a running theme of Blender 3.0 geometry nodes are now faster with a new evaluation system. There are about 100 new nodes and all are in the description but let's cover some of the highlights. First we have fields. With fields it's easier to build node groups for upper level concepts to work together. To help keep things visually organized socket shapes are used to convey which sockets are for field nodes and which are for data nodes. Nodes can be broadly broken into two categories. Field nodes which operate on a data per element and are represented by a dashed line and data nodes which pass geometry. There's an entire page in the manual dedicated to it with visual examples. And with the ability to work on data without needing attributes we can now port texture nodes from the shader editor. So let's take a look at the broader categories of nodes that have been added. New nodes have been added for attributes to provide more options and control over your attribute data. Instances have a bunch of nodes to improve workflow and give you more control on the rotation scale, translation and more. Curves are now supported in geometry nodes including a lot of curve operators and there are also new nodes for text strings, materials and more. The knife tool just got a whole lot better. The constrained angle mode has been improved and it's easier to snap into place. You can turn this on by default now too. Pressing S will toggle measurements for distance and angles and you can now undo your previous cuts. There's an X-ray mode with depth checking and now you can use it for multi-object edit mode. Virtual reality support now has controller support. Currently this allows you to view your controllers in the viewport and move around the scene. We're one step closer to being able to use blender and sight of blender. The grease pencil now has a new vertex weight modifier to generate weights based off proximity or angle on the fly. There's a new length modifier that allows modifications of stroke length even allowing you to extend it based on their curvature. There's a new cool dot dash modifier as well that lets you assign materials to each segment. You can now toggle en masse to use during view layer renders and there are a ton of additional minor updates to existing tools to improve workflow. More of these revolve around line art and operators. Some highlights include speed improvements, camera overscan to help lines extend beyond the frame, baked and transformed strokes into new objects, normalizing thickness and opacity of strokes and select random operators. The default theme got a refresh to celebrate the 3.0 series. This includes improved contrast colors and a new round of settings for panels and menu items. Area management has a new area close operator. The look of corner action zones has been updated to show that you can now create and merge areas in ways that weren't possible before. There's a new view filter in the outliner letting you see all view layers. Material previews have been updated to have better UVs and there are also more options for blender thumbnails now too. The video sequence editor has new image transform tools, strip thumbnails, improved snapping, strip override mode, color tags and more. Packing has new options for linked libraries and external cleanup. Elimic support has been improved, now supporting animated vertex colors and more. USD import is now supported. The Python API has a bunch of updates. I'm too dumb to explain, so check it out below for more details. As usual, there are hundreds of bugs fixes, minor features and improvements, which of course can be seen at the link in the description below. If you like what you see, go support Blender and join the development fund.


Maidd Uncle Maragor! Welcome to the 26th meeting of 2018 of the Social Security Committee. I remind everyone present to turn off mobile phones or other devices to silent mode, so to interrupt the meeting we will have had one apology this morning from George Adam MSP, who is unfortunately unlikely to be able to attend this morning. We now move to agenda item one, which is to take item in private. The committee is asked to agree that item 3 consideration of social security and Adaff Report yn chi'n teulu hedge cyrraedd favouriter i haith hwnnead arna? Eworch non atlunydd yn hy επuall mattwchon nharbbai yn disstr affili Gamb, amgarau sut yn oledu iaid y cwyllamedd ydw i'r cyfrigeid jungle, bitexiftenig auniperach ond inethau 50iant ydw i lCEI Si mastr yn roedd nesaf cael beeriau ei hwnnead wedi ddat regeneration aeant eich mynig yn rhy PRES- 사진 The original instrument was drawn to the 10th of the Parliament of the DPLR committee at its meeting on 2 October. The Scottish Government agreed to lay this amendment, amending instrument rather, to correct the errors. The DPLR committee has not raised any issues with this amended instrument. Is the committee content to note the instrument? I thank members for that. That was a rather short public part of the meeting this morning, because we now move to agenda item 3, which is the item of social security and work poverty that we previously agreed to take in private.


Hey Theo, it's mother's day today. Have you said happy mother's day to your mom yet? First mother's day Well, we've had mother's days before she had four kids, but this one's a little different Been waiting a long time Did you say happy mother's day?  He's been talking all day. He's been saying all the things and all night We have a very chatty baby. Yeah. Oh my goodness.  Hey, buddy. Are you talking your fishy friends right now? Yeah, oh, he's looking at the milk milk monster You just ate like six ounces man He's still hungry So it is mother's day twenty twenty three her big day My voice just cracked her big day It's so it's so awesome I'm exhausted. That's why my voice is cracking. So When I got home last night or yesterday, I wanted her to get a full night's sleep So I took the night shift the morning shift I just wanted her to sleep as much as she could as much as she wanted and I figured out whatever I'll watch Theo and he'll let me get like four hours. Maybe three four hours of sleep. I'll be fine. I Didn't get five minutes Five minutes, nope, he woke up I guess I got about an hour between one and two and he woke up around 2 a.m.  He's just very chatty He doesn't want to sleep right now. It's going through a phase Six-week sleep regression at seven weeks. And no, he wasn't crying. He wasn't upset. He was fed He had a clean diaper. He was just sitting here chatting away to himself and to his little friends up here Mr. Crab Yeah, all night didn't sleep a wink and neither did your dad So it's been a bit of an exhausting day, but the day's not about me at least Mommy's rested. That's what matters today Father's Day is coming. It was a rough week much more than three three and a half hours a night for six ninth straight but But I function better on lack of sleep than Josh does Josh is more of a sleeper than I am Yeah, no, I need my sleep. That doesn't mean I don't like sleep. It's just that I can function well without it I don't I need at least four hours usually and only one or two nights in a row and then I need an eight hour night But it's uh, I can go six seven nights But I'm biologically engineered to be able to do that. He's not So it's been interesting so I had a whole bunch of stuff planned and I Wanted to be vlogging throughout the entire day and I've just been trying to get my mind Going most of the day I Start chatty chatter over here Seriously, he hasn't stopped since 2 a.m He's still going That's okay. At least he's happy right? It's not it's not sad or angry sounds. It's he's happy He's making these happy sounds. It just kept Kept your daddy up. All right I wasn't planning on doing it all nighter. So, you know, if I would have had my mindset in that zone, maybe it would have been a little different, but ah Come here squish. Hey, did you make me a mommy?  We went to the mall a little before and stymed back got some clothes Yeah Josh made me breakfast pancakes and bacon blueberry pancakes and bacon Okay, it was actually lunch because by the time he could actually function ish It was afternoon, but That's okay. You're worth it Yeah, I'm making plans when we have newborns.  Are you kidding me? Just in awe Oh I think he's in awe with my hat. It's my mommy. You're such a cute hat. So cute Yes, diesel's boys. Yes Mr. Q chinese restaurant here in steinback. It's our favorite in town Delicious food shout out shout out to them. Have you ever been in steinback? You like chinese food? Check out mr. Q. It's right across from giant tiger Which is sort of like canada's version of walmart but not quite There the canadian walmart giant tiger. It's right across it's right here Mr. Q's restaurant Definitely worth it brit wanted chinese for mother's day today. So brit is getting chinese for mother's day I've never actually been to china So I don't know if the chinese food we have here in north america is anything like the food in china I think it's been americanized or north americanized Either way, I love it. I love it Has anyone actually been to china? Is the food the same because it'd be kind of disappointing if it wasn't right? Not for you guys. No interrupting a mother's day moment on the porch and then He went to sleep finally Sure now he goes to sleep Just needed mommy's touch. He's left in your arms. No problem.  He likes being squished This is my favorite chicken balls Yeah, we got a lot of them.   I feel totally normal and I digest well No stomach aches. No block weight down feeling It's awesome. It's such a good restaurant Yeah, I was telling them it's like our favorite in town.  Why haven't you tried mr. Q's yet? Yeah Why not? You're missing out. It's really busy though. So make sure you call ahead I called at 11 30 this morning to place this order for 6 p.m It's mother's day Hey feel What do you think of the idea of Going for a walk Yeah Let's do it It's amazing You see when you walk as opposed to just drive through when you drive through it you miss everything When you walk through you see all kinds of new things What was that? Yeah And it feels better too Well diesel Next time you can come with us. We went without the dogs this time. It was just a walk for us We'll see for mom