Mr. Speaker, happy International Women's Day. Our main streets have been hard hit over this pandemic, but women in my community have been at the forefront of standing up for small businesses and for strong, vibrant streets.
Most of my local BIAs are led by women and have women in leadership positions, such Jennifer Lay at the Riverside BIA, Christiane Tetreault at the Leslieville BIA, Tasneem Bandukwala at the Gerrard India Bazaar BIA, Dawn Chapman at Gerrard and Coxwell, Susan Puff for Broadview Danforth BIA, Mary Fragedakis for GreekTown BIA, and Tracey Kish and Clorraine Dennie for the Pape Village BIA. We just lost a tiger for our small businesses and BIAs with the East Chinatown Chamber of Commerce having lost Valerie Mah, a real dynamo for our community.
I thank all of these women for all the work they do to support our small businesses every year and especially in this past year.