Thank you very much to the member for Barrie–Innisfil for this question. I know she, as a new parent—a lot of skin in the game to get this right.

We’re working together, across our communities, to make sure all children succeed.

I want to assure families that we are going to challenge the status quo, lift standards and expect better for Ontario children. That is something that I believe should unite us all in this Legislature. We’re going to start that by increasing investment by 693 million more dollars next year. We’re going to continue to build momentum by hiring 2,000 skilled, focused educators when it comes to literacy promotion, mathematics and destreamed courses.

We’re going to continue to reform the system, and part of this plan is to ensure that school board priorities reflect those of parents, whom we represent—back to basics, refocusing the system on what matters most, qon strengthening fundamental, foundational skills of reading, writing, math and other STEM disciplines.

We know there’s more work to do, and we’re prepared to do it together to improve our schools for our kids.

My question is for the Minister of Education. I want to thank him for coming to the riding of Barrie–Innisfil, where he heard first-hand from many parents—parents like Lynn, who is a working mom of five and is also serving as a school trustee locally. He heard resoundingly that we need to focus on teaching relevant life skills, job skills—things that will help their children succeed not only in the classroom, but also in today’s modern economy.

While our government is actively modernizing course content and providing historic levels of funding, we must also make sure that leadership and governance at the board level continue to reflect the priorities that will serve our students best.

I want to ask the minister—speaking to parents not only in Barrie–Innisfil, but all across this province—how are we going to focus on what matters most in our education system and strengthen our education system?

This government has a lot of love for Barrie–Innisfil and for that member, who does great work and who asked a great question this morning.

Speaker, I’m very happy to say that two weeks ago, we finished major construction of the Davenport Diamond’s beautiful, new elevated guideway that now lifts the Barrie GO line above freight train tracks. Bu that’s not all. GO trains are now travelling along this game-changing piece of infrastructure, which will reduce congestion for one of the busiest train intersections in all of North America. There’s more. This guideway also provides pedestrians and cyclists with more terrific connections by enabling GO trains to seamlessly travel above existing traffic.

Our government is delivering outstanding GO expansion upgrades across the Barrie line so riders can get to work, critical services, and back home with speed and ease.

The opposition did nothing for the people of Barrie–Innisfil.

This government is getting it done.

The Barrie line stations—we’ve already finished major upgrades at Rutherford GO station, and amazing work is under way to deliver additional platforms and revamped facilities at the Maple, King City, and Aurora GO stations. When it comes to the Barrie line corridor, Metrolinx is adding an extra track between Union and Aurora GO to help with the traffic, as we watch the Leafs win the cup this year—two-way service all day to the Barrie line, every 15 minutes, every day of the week.

But our efforts don’t just benefit riders. In fact, the GO expansion as a whole will generate 8,300 construction and supply chain jobs every single year.

Speaker, the NDP and the Liberals simply didn’t build transit when they could have, for decades.

This government is not only getting shovels in the ground; we’re making the rider experience better all along.

My question is to the Associate Minister of Transportation, who is constantly getting our people moving.

Barrie–Innisfil is home to an exciting transit-oriented community project; we’re going to create more housing. But it’s also home to people, over 80% of whom commute to get to work. They rely on the GO train network that connects the Barrie South station to Union Station to downtown Toronto. Unfortunately, riders on the Barrie GO train continue to experience growing delays due to increased traffic at the Davenport crossing. This is one of the busiest at-grade crossing stations in North America, creating a bottleneck of rail tracks impacting both freight rail and GO train services. That is why it’s critical for our government to show leadership by taking action to address this long-standing rail problem.

I want to ask the Associate Minister of Transportation how he’s bringing hope, real investment and leadership on the progress our government is making on this particular train.

It’s welcome news to all folks in Barrie–Innisfil—especially when I talk to people like Tina-Anne, Kyle and Nick, who commute five days a week to come to work here in the GTA.

Transit infrastructure is vital, and the GO train network is important to get people connected to all communities and to their work.

Across the greater Golden Horseshoe as a whole, reliable and convenient transit service is essential, as the population is expected to increase over the next three decades, increasing the demand on our transit services and the upgrades that are needed now to ensure that frequent and convenient service is there for years to come.

We can’t afford to delay or hold back transit investments. Our government must deliver on our commitment to bring relief and new opportunities to transit users and commuters.

So I’d like to ask the associate minister: Can he please elaborate on how our government is investing in expanding the GO Transit network?