Legislative Assembly of Ontario
Monday 19 March 2007
PROVINCIAL ADVOCATE FOR
CHILDREN AND YOUTH ACT, 2007

Ms. Lisa MacLeod (Nepean-Carleton): It's a pleasure to be back here today with all of you. Today is a very important day in the Legislature. It's the first time in Ontario's history that the Legislature has 25% women sitting in these seats, and that's because of my friend Joyce Savoline from Burlington. I want to congratulate her. It's a tremendous feat; it's very historic.

I also want to congratulate two other colleagues, from York South-Weston and from Markham. I think it's tremendous that they were able to participate in the democratic process, and I think all three political parties are richer for it. Joyce, I'm so pleased that you're here with us today.

I'd also like to acknowledge some people in the gallery whom the third party critic is talking to right now. They are Les Horne, our first child advocate, appointed by Premier Davis; Matthew Geigen-Miller, who I think is probably one of the foremost experts in the country on the independence of a child advocate; Judy Finlay, who is our current chief Ontario child advocate; and Cathy Vine and her colleagues from Voices for Children. They should all be congratulated for their work on behalf of children in this province. Certainly throughout the period of my research their names popped up everywhere. They have tremendous insight, and we're very proud to have you here, so thank you very much.

As I mentioned in first reading, my party, the Progressive Conservative Party, is proud to have been the first to introduce the child advocate in Ontario, who was Les Horne, under the premiership of Bill Davis in 1984. Premier Davis established IMPAC in 1977, which is the interministerial provincial advisory committee, by which we are now able to have ministries work across boundaries to provide a forum for agencies and families to enable better access for children. In 1978, Mr. Davis established Canada's first provincial advocacy office, the Office of Child and Family Services Advocacy, which was later entrenched in legislation when Mr. Davis's government introduced the Child and Family Services Act.

This great man, Premier Davis, was far ahead of his time. After all, it was only 1993 when the United Nations adopted the Paris Principles, calling on governments worldwide to establish government bodies for the protection of children and youth. Premier Davis was the first in this province to envision a government body which would bring together expertise in the areas of child welfare, children's mental health, developmental disability, youth justice, education, health, family treatment and children's rights in order to best s