Mr Garfield Dunlop (Simcoe North): My question today is for the Premier. Mr Premier, yesterday and today we honoured veterans in this House for the sacrifices they and their colleagues have made through both war and peacetime. I know that many of the members in this House will be attending Remembrance Day services throughout the next week, and I know that in my own riding I've got nine Legions and there are over 17 events I have to attend.

I understand that your Minister of Health will be introducing anti-smoking legislation that may include eliminating smoking in legion halls and veterans' establishments. Premier, will your government -- and I just need a simple answer -- be introducing legislation that will eliminate smoking in legion halls and veterans' establishments?

Hon Dalton McGuinty (Premier, Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs): I'll leave the details with respect to that bill in the hands of the minister, but I can say that we are most determined to address the issue of smoking in public places and in workplaces in the province. We will be introducing comprehensive legislation. Smoking is the number one killer in the province of Ontario. It costs us over $1 billion on an annual basis in health care costs, and we are determined to address it in a comprehensive way.

Mr Dunlop: I don't think I need to remind the House that we wouldn't be here today without the contributions our soldiers have made so that we can live in a land of peace and freedom with the right to vote and have a democracy. Mr Premier, our veterans do not ask much from this province or from this assembly. As veterans, they do their socializing in their legion halls and veterans' establishments. Any decision that would take away the right of a veteran to have a cigarette in a legion hall, I feel, would be a cruel and shameful decision.

Mr Premier, will you promise today that you will not include Legions and veterans' establishments in your anti-smoking legislation?

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Hon Mr McGuinty: Just to remind members opposite, I know a little something about veterans, having had the very good fortune and privilege of working as an orderly at the National Defence Medical Centre in Ottawa for about a year's time after high school, where I provided basic, hands-on care for veterans. I bathed and shaved these men, turned them from side to side, fed them, brushed their hair, brushed their teeth, read to them and listened to them, so I know a little something about veterans. And my respect for them is, I would argue, without compare.

Having said that, 16,000 Ontarians die every year as a result of smoking-related illness. It costs us $1.7 billion in health costs. We will be introducing a bill that addresses that. It will be comprehensive, and it will be with a view to ensuring that we get better control over this scourge in Ontario: smoking-related illness.