Hastings Lennox & Addington MPP Ric Bresee was honoured to be able to bring the Garrett’s Legacy Act before Queen’s Park this week for second reading.
It’s been six years since Garrett Mills was killed when a movable soccer net fell on him in Napanee.
The bill, named in his honour, would require movable soccer goals to be secured.
It’s not the first time the bill has come before the legislature but Bresee says some bad timing stalled it in two previous attempts.
He tells Quinte News now the timing is right and it has the support of all sides.
There have also been a few changes made to this latest version.
“Where previously the rules were specified within the act and therefore you would literally have to come back through the House and come back through this process if there was a different type of net or different type of surface. So this provides for a lot more flexibility to make it more practical and usable.”
“One of the things that we did include in the bill this time is the allowance for the Minister to come forward with educational awareness, with signage and stickers, etc., for the nets to make sure that people are aware that there is a risk involved in these.”
Bresee says the bill could become law as soon as this fall.
This bill is very personal for Bresee – though he did not know Garrett he came to know his parents, Gwen and David Mills (also known as Buzz Collins of Rock 107) after his own daughter passed away from leukemia a few months after Garrett’s death.
Bresee says Garrett’s family reached out to him and helped him through his grieving process.
