Je remercie Robert Lebel pour la pétition intitulée « Soutenez le système d’éducation francophone en Ontario.

« À l’Assemblée législative de l’Ontario :

« Alors que les enfants francophones ont un droit constitutionnel à une éducation de haute qualité, financée par les fonds publics, dans leur propre langue;

« Alors que l’augmentation des inscriptions dans le système d’éducation en langue française signifie que plus de 1 000 nouveaux enseignants et enseignantes de langue française sont nécessaires chaque année pour les cinq prochaines années;

« Alors que les changements apportés au modèle de financement du gouvernement provincial pour la formation des enseignantes et enseignants de langue française signifient que l’Ontario n’en forme que 500 par an;

« Alors que le nombre de personnes qui enseignent sans certification complète dans le système d’éducation en langue française a augmenté de plus de 450 % au cours » des dernières années;

« Par conséquent, nous, soussignés, demandons à l’Assemblée législative de l’Ontario de fournir immédiatement le financement demandé par le rapport du groupe de travail sur la pénurie des enseignantes et des enseignants dans le système d’éducation en langue française de l’Ontario et de travailler avec des partenaires pour mettre pleinement en oeuvre les recommandations. »

Il me fait plaisir de signer cette pétition. Je la remets à Lazo pour qu’il l’amène à la table des greffiers.

This petition is titled “In Support of Improving Education in Ontario.

“To the Minister of Education:

“Whereas the government is committed to delivering a world-class education system that helps prepare students for the jobs of tomorrow; and

“Whereas the legislative changes proposed through the Better Schools and Student Outcomes Act, together with future regulatory amendments, would, if passed, lay the groundwork for a truly world-class education system, unified with a singular focus to improve student outcomes in important lifelong skills like reading, writing and math; and

“Whereas Ontario school boards are not consistently working toward the same priorities, school board performance varies across the province on indicators related to literacy, math, graduation and student attendance; and

“Whereas some parents can review and assess their school board’s performance while other boards do not proactively share this information; and

“Whereas in response Ontario is taking action through proposed legislation to set student achievement priorities and expectations for Ontario’s education sector, and proposed legislative and future regulatory changes, if passed, would allow the Minister of Education to set provincial priorities to:

“—focus boards in important areas of student achievement like reading, writing and math;

“—require school boards to report on progress toward these priorities and enable the Ministry of Education to support struggling boards sooner;

“—allow the minister to require school boards to make any report that the minister may require from the board available to the public;

“—require enhanced school board financial reporting on funding and spending, planned and actuals;

“—allow the minister to strengthen rules around financial accountability and transparency;

“—allow the minister to prescribe school board limitations in participating in business activities that could place school boards in financial risk;

“—allow the minister to enhance the financial accountability of school board-controlled entities, promote greater school board-municipality co-operation on delivering child care and enable an accelerated apprenticeship pathway;

“We, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly as follows:

“To support the Better Schools and Student Outcomes Act, 2023, and ensure its passage.”

I proudly affix my signature to this petition and will give it to page Frederick.

I have a petition here to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.

“Whereas parents have asked the Ministry of Education to improve accountability and transparency for students, parents, and Ontario taxpayers; and

“Whereas all 72 school boards must focus their obligations on improving student achievement by preparing students with the life, jobs and critical-thinking skills needed to succeed; and

“Whereas school boards should make public their plans to improve student achievement and offer every single parent the opportunity to view and review these plans at the start of the school year and the end of the school year to measure progress; and

“Whereas school boards should be required to increase transparency in how the school board will spend provincial tax dollars to improve student achievement; and

“Whereas students and parents should be put back at the forefront of Ontario’s education system;

“Therefore we, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as follows:

“To urge all members of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to support the passage of Bill 98, the Better School and Student Outcomes Act, 2023.”

I am very proud to put my name to this petition and will provide that to Akshitha.

When we last debated this bill, I understand the member for Kitchener–Conestoga had the floor. There’s still some time on the clock, and I recognize the member for Kitchener–Conestoga to continue his presentation.

As a strong believer in public education, a representative of democracy, of working families and as a parent, it is an honour for me to rise in the House and express my support for the Better Schools and Student Outcomes Act.

Whenever I talk to hard-working families in Newmarket–Aurora, Speaker, the subject of education always comes up. Many families like what the Minister of Education is doing in terms of updating the curriculum to better reflect the needs of the labour market and ensuring our schools are safe and welcoming learning centres for all students. However, they also tell me there’s a lot more that needs to be done, and they’re frustrated by what they perceive as a big and impersonal bureaucracy in the form of their local school board that resists change and is neither properly accountable nor transparent.

Speaker, I do not typically quote former Premiers, but I think it is appropriate here to quote former NDP Premier Bob Rae’s Royal Commission on Learning from December 1994 as it nicely surmises what I hear from parents:

“One complaint that we heard, repeatedly, was that the public education system no longer seems to be responsible to the public. This is one major cause of the lack of confidence that so many seem to feel for the system. Although board of education trustees and provincial governments are elected, there exists widespread unease that schools have become a kingdom unto themselves, with little need to report to parents or to the world at large what they are doing with our kids, and whether they’re doing it successfully.”

Speaker, that situation has only increased in the three decades since that report was written.

As a parent with a child who has been part of this education system, I know first-hand and can understand parents’ frustrations. I believe the Minister of Education has done a phenomenal job of driving transformational change, but the problems in the education system are deep-seated and go back decades, as the royal commission reported nearly 30 years ago.

The education system simply hasn’t been meeting the needs of students in terms of learning core skills such as reading and math—and again, I can state this as a fact as a parent. The former Liberal government’s discovery math and discovery reading programs were out of date, out of touch and in serious need of retooling.

Teacher education programs don’t provide consistent training in the fundamentals such as math and literacy. Information about the overall performance of school boards isn’t easily accessible by parents or the public, which has a significant impact on accountability and transparency. In my previous life in the private sector, if a multi-million dollar corporation could not provide accountability over the spending of revenues, well, I’ll tell you now, Mr. Speaker, executives and boards would be quickly undergoing a makeover. And how it pertains to school boards? The ministry has a limited ability to drive or enforce provincial priorities. I have to admit this is why I know there are so many disillusioned families in our communities when it comes to the public education system. What the province prioritizes is not what the final outcomes are in our communities. Thus, a disconnect that needs to be corrected.

Increasingly, Speaker, parents get see verbal spats among school board trustees that are also costly, time-consuming and add to the erosion of public confidence in the system. I have witnessed this first-hand in my own community of Newmarket–Aurora in York region. Speaker, we believe that the governance and accountability of trustees and our entire school boards will indeed improve our local education system so they can focus on what is important—back to the basics of reading, writing and math—so it is all about student outcomes and not about having to deal with situations that deter from this focus.

Thankfully, Speaker, our government is taking action to address these long-standing problems. The Better Schools and Student Outcomes Act will, if passed, include legislative and regulatory reforms under four statutes to support improved outcomes through the following actions:

—drive provincial priorities and expectations for Ontario’s education sector from the province through to the province’s classrooms to enhance accountability and transparency;

—enable more effective governance through reforms for education sector boards of trustees, including a standard code of conduct;

—help to maximize the considerable real estate assets of school boards;

—ensure Ontario’s teachers are trained for the needs of today’s and tomorrow’s classrooms; and

—provide the information and tools necessary to ensure consistent information and approaches to student learning, including student learning about mental health and well-being.

Les conseils scolaires de l’Ontario comptent près de 700 conseillères et conseillers scolaires, qui prennent des décisions importantes et font valoir des perspectives précieuses et des considérations locales sur la façon dont les conseils scolaires sont régis. Les dirigeants des conseils scolaires jouent un rôle crucial pour veiller à ce que le système d’éducation de l’Ontario soit centré sur ce qui compte le plus : l’acquisition de compétences durables comme la lecture, l’écriture et les mathématiques.

Nous savons que les parents et les élèves ont besoin d’un plus grand nombre d’outils aux fins de transparence et de responsabilisation. Il est donc impératif que les personnes exerçant des fonctions de direction acquièrent les connaissances nécessaires pour assurer une éducation publique de qualité aux élèves de leurs conseils scolaires.

Toutefois, il existe aujourd’hui des incohérences dans la province en ce qui concerne le soutien et la formation fournis aux conseillères et conseillers scolaires et l’évaluation du rendement des directrices et directeurs de l’éducation.

Si elles sont adoptées, les modifications législatives proposées permettraient ce qui suit : d’autoriser le ministre à établir des politiques et des lignes directrices énonçant la formation que doivent suivre les conseillères et conseillers scolaires, y compris le contenu de la formation, le moment où elle doit être suivie et la fréquence; et de permettre au gouvernement d’établir un processus d’évaluation du rendement des directrices et directeurs de l’éducation.

Afin de renforcer le code de conduite auquel doivent se conformer les conseillères et conseillers scolaires et de réduire les perturbations pour que les conseillères et conseillers scolaires puissent se concentrer sur le rendement des élèves, les modifications proposées, si elles sont adoptées, établiraient un nouveau processus impartial, dirigé par le commissaire à l’intégrité, régissant le règlement des plaintes relatives à des violations du code de conduite.

These reforms are a major step forward in the government’s efforts to make sure all parts of Ontario’s education system are unified to prepare students for the jobs of the future and to be accountable to parents and taxpayers for these results. The Better Schools and Student Outcomes Act is necessary and is long-overdue legislation that will make a positive difference in the lives of students and parents. Positive and successful student outcomes are what our communities deserve.

I hope that my colleagues on the opposition benches put partisan politics aside and show their support as well.

Well, thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I recognize you as well. I’ve seen you around this place for many years, and I’m glad you’re here and still presiding over today’s, shall we say, festivities. Let’s maybe liven it up a little bit this afternoon here. I know the member from Timiskaming–Cochrane is certainly looking forward to some lively debate in the House.

I was just finishing off this morning talking about my private member’s bill that had passed and just talking about safety for students. I think it’s a good segue into what we’re debating here today, the Better Schools and Student Outcomes Act which, if passed, will clearly establish a zero-tolerance approach for any educator convicted of a sexual offence. I think that’s something that’s very important about this bill, Mr. Speaker, and of course, to our government, student safety is very critical.

But I do want to shift gears a little bit and I want to talk about where we were back in April 2020. As our world’s economy continues to change, we need to keep up with the times, and this is why the Better Schools and Student Outcomes Act, if passed, will implement a mandatory curriculum review process no fewer than every three years. I think this has been a critical theme, where we’ve heard from parents, where we’ve heard from students to and what we’ve heard from industry—really trying to focus back on to STEM programs and getting people prepared for the jobs of the future.

One thing we’ve seen certainly around Waterloo region is a willingness to get trades back into our high schools, and shop classes—automotive shop classes, which my son is actually taking part in and is loving it and is working on a career path to become a mechanic, which is phenomenal—but maybe a politician, too. He has taken part in Fed-Prov recently and of course was a page here. Pages, for your edification, I’ve had two sons who have been a page here in the Legislature.

It’s really important that we continue to focus on those STEM programs, to modernize and have the curriculum evaluated so that we’re able to keep up with what the jobs of the future look like. This is why Bill 98 seeks to streamline certification timelines for those with in-demand expertise who have valuable skills as well to teach our students, Speaker.

Another priority of our government is ensuring that the quality of education is consistent across Ontario. I think we have about 72 school boards—colleagues, correct me if I’m wrong. So making sure that we have the same rules, the same way of thinking, the same ideology across the 72 school boards, to make sure that if someone’s transitioning—I’ll use myself as an example. Ten years ago, I moved to Waterloo region. We had two children at the time going to school in North Bay. They were taking French immersion. I know there’s been a lot of talk about French-language education here in the House over the last couple of days. I think it’s very important. It was very interesting to see—from full-day kindergarten and also into grade 1, full-day French immersion in grade 1—when we moved down to southern Ontario, to Waterloo region, French immersion didn’t start until grade 1, so you lost out on it in kindergarten. Not only that, but it’s only done in half days, where it’s full days in northern Ontario, which I thought was very interesting.

Looking at the ways to be able to streamline the way that boards do business I think is extremely important and certainly something, as a parent—my wife is actually a member of the parent councils where our kids go to school, and it’s very important to be involved and to make sure you know what’s going on. But, also, part of what I alluded to earlier in my comments was that it can be very hard for parents to navigate the education system and to truly understand what boards are doing and what’s happening at their schools. For a lot of us here, it’s a little bit easier, because we see the inner workings and the nuts and bolts; we’re interacting with those educational stakeholders on a regular basis. But most parents don’t have the opportunity to do that. So, to be able to see school boards become more accountable is something we can all agree on. Certainly, we want every student to have the same opportunity here in the province. Again, making sure we’re being concurrent and congruent across all of the 72 school boards is extremely important.

As I had mentioned earlier, I want to share my time with the member from Newmarket–Aurora so I think now would be the time to do that, Mr. Speaker.

I recognize the member for Newmarket–Aurora.

I’d like to thank the member from Eglinton–Lawrence for her question.

I would have to say, number one, what I hear the most about is the concerns about where the funding is going and what is going on with that funding. In this bill, we will have school boards actually post financial results of what’s going on, and it’s going to be tied to our student outcomes. At the end of the day, this is what it’s all about. Everybody agrees—all my constituents want to see the best outcome for their child.

This is what it is all about: ensuring that transparency with the school boards so that we can have reporting that is tied to student outcomes.

I want to thank my colleagues from Kitchener–Conestoga and Newmarket–Aurora for their comments, and I wanted to direct a question to the member from Newmarket–Aurora. Also, the member from Kitchener–Conestoga had mentioned this, but you did as well, member from Newmarket–Aurora, talking about parents and how frustrated they’ve been with some of the issues that come up with schools and school boards and trying to actually have an influence on what’s happening with the education of their children in our schools. I certainly hear a lot of that from my constituents. Also, as a parent of children, I know that that’s something that we’ve experienced ourselves, and I know both you and the member from Kitchener–Conestoga mentioned that you had.

Can you just talk a little bit more about what you’ve heard from constituents and why you think this legislation is going to help?

Thank you very much. Listen, that’s what is actually enshrined in this bill. We’re upping Grants for Student Needs by $700 million. We’re putting $15 billion into capital projects. And we’re hiring more teachers with specializations to be able to teach these classes.

We look at the ideology that was perpetrated by the previous Liberal government that closed these programs, and, quite frankly, in a minority government, it was support by the NDP. I do find it a little bit strange that they would stand up and pontificate on those types of things when it is this Conservative government that is actually making the necessary investments, that is working with our schools and our school boards to make sure that we are hiring qualified teachers to teach these programs and to make sure that we have the ability to have the spaces for these in our schools.

It is now time for questions and answers.

It’s a great question. I know many of us, obviously, are parents here. I think there’s some room for improvement. Certainly, our educators do a fantastic job, but there’s always room to improve.

When I look at the breakdown of my children, I have two in high school, one who’s going into middle school next year and then two more in primary grades. It’s very interesting to see the level of engagement with their teachers and educators but more so with the way that the boards administer each of the schools.

I know I talked a lot about it in my remarks, but I’m really starting to see some streamlining and making the boards accountable for what they’re doing and how they’re planning things out within the different schools, certainly within our school board at Waterloo Region District School Board. I’m very excited to see that the accountability piece is going to be there, because I think that’s the piece that’s really lacking. A lot of parents want to see the board being accountable and want it to be transparent so they can see what their children are being taught and where that money that we are investing is being spent.

Further questions?

I’d like to thank the member opposite for the question. I have to say that mental health supports are what this bill is all about as well.

I know in my community of Newmarket, just recently we had a horrible incident of bullying, where two young girls were beating up on another child. Now, I’ve got to say, bullying has happened forever, but I do believe the magnitude of it has gotten worse. Two young girls were charged, by the way. This just happened maybe a few blocks from my own constituency office.

What we are doing is putting in a 170% increase. It’s a historic $130 million going into mental health. We talk about mental health and the safety. Safety equals mental health. This is why we want to help our students by providing consistency in the delivery of mental health education and services across all school boards.

I’d like to ask a question of the member from Kitchener–Conestoga while he’s staring at my backside right now. Thank you very much for that, to the great member.

In seriousness, for those of you who may or may not know, of course, I’m aware that the member has five children, all in the secondary school level and junior levels. I’ve got three young children in grades 3, 4 and 5 myself. As parents with kids going to school, how do you really rank and feel—I’m just curious, to the member, in his own personal experience, less so as a legislator, as a member of the government, but more as father of five children in school—how do you feel our system is serving our students, and do you feel that we’re doing pretty well for our kids right now?

It’s a pleasure to rise and attempt to engage the government here on this education bill. I have to, though, take a step back, because one has to ask the question: When a government makes simultaneous announcements in the same area, what’s actually going on? On Sunday—this past Sunday—the education minister talked about this bill, but at the same time released the funding announcement, as the member for Ottawa West–Nepean mentioned in debate earlier this morning. Why do that? People are busy enough. Parents are busy enough. Kids who are working in our public school systems, attempting to be the best students they can be, are busy enough. As we await information about what this government’s plans are for our public education system, why release two things on the same day?

I have a theory, Speaker, and its doesn’t go to motive. It’s a theory about why a government would do such a thing. I think it’s because there’s some bad news here. I know we’re going to have a debate, in the questions and answers to my time this afternoon, about what that news is. I think it’s bad news.

Here’s why. I heard the education minister this week in debate get up and describe the funding announcement this week and this bill as a net positive thing for students and a net positive thing for our schools. But what the member for Ottawa West–Nepean said very clearly this morning is that the proof in the pudding always shows up at a school board level. It always shows up at a school board level when the people charged to actually oversee the schools at a local level look at the details about staff allocations, look at the details about resource allocations, and figure out what they’re going to do with what the government offers.

This is what we’ve learned at the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board. After burning through reserves, based upon previous cuts from this government, they are staring down the probability of $10 million to $13 million in cuts going forward. That’s not a net positive, as I see it. Here in the great city of Toronto, the Toronto District School Board has done the same assessment, and after burning through, I believe, as much as $70 million in reserves, they are now looking at $64 million in cuts. I know the education minister likes to talk about math and the importance of training up kids at math, but the math that I was trained to use myself leads me to believe cuts are not a net positive thing.

These 2,000 staff positions the minister talks about: As I read through the details of my colleague’s presentation of what the minister presented, what I understood is that these aren’t necessarily assigned to a particular occupation. They’re math coaches, as I understand it, Speaker. If you were to take those 2,000 positions and put them across the entire school systems of all the boards that we have, you wouldn’t even be sprinkling a meaningful amount per school. So if the minister truly wants kids to win and succeed, win and be the best person they could be, why would he be sprinkling such a paltry amount of resources by way of staff?

This is what I know from actual math. If the government had simply kept pace with inflation, according to the Bank of Canada—an actual, statistical source of data, unlike this government—they would be spending $2.5 billion more this year in education. That is what would be required just to keep pace with inflation.

Now, what happens when we don’t keep pace with inflation? What happens when school boards get shorted? What happens is, ultimately, staff and students get shorted. Sadly, I hate to tell you, Speaker, the people who are often at the top of the getting-shorted list are students with disabilities.

I want to talk about a few stories, one of which comes from home and that has had some modest progress as recently as today, thanks to a family who is tireless in advocating for their child, but I think it will help give the government some sense about when they propose enhancements, but deliver cuts, who suffers.

Elliot Legault is a high school student in the city of Ottawa. His family lives in Ottawa Centre. Elliot Legault is an autistic adolescent. He’s non-verbal, but what his behavioural analyst determined at the school board level and to the family is that Elliot has an incredible amount of gifts to give and bring, not only for himself but to his class.

But what happened in the pandemic is interesting. Because there was so much virtual education happening—special education was still going on in person, so Elliot, actually, during the pandemic, was one of those few students who got the benefit from schools being relatively open so he could, as is his wont, get up and walk around and explore and experience learning in a very interactive way. It’s a necessity for Elliot; it’s a necessity. So the pandemic, oddly enough, was a positive thing for Elliot as he was grappling with his learning journey in his high school.

But when people came back from virtual learning, things were very different for Elliot. There were obvious tensions with other students. Getting up and walking around are not necessarily understood by other students as part of Elliot’s learning journey and could be understood as disruptive, and conflicts could be created. The only way those conflicts get mediated is with trained people in the classroom. That is the only way those conflicts get mediated. So the Legault family advocated for their son and went as far as the autism program at Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, and made a proposal, successfully, to have CHEO-based resources allocated to their son’s high school to make sure staff could figure out how to quickly mediate conflict as it was happening so it didn’t spiral out of control, so a classroom didn’t have to be cleared.

That’s incredible. I think about the amount of parents who have the capability to figure out all those avenues of advocacy where they can connect with the children’s hospital to the high school to the staff, but they accomplished all those things. But when people came back, those resources were time-limited. The CHEO resources were not there forever. They were gradually withdrawn, and staff were told, “Okay, here we go. We have all these students coming back in the high school now, and you’re going to have to figure out a way to help Elliot without an EA today.” That was often the response: “You’re going to have to figure out a way to accommodate Elliot without the ability to move around, to go in the hall and walk back and forth, and keep him in the classroom.”

You can tell it’s a ticking time bomb of a problem. A conflict is going to happen. A classroom is going to be cleared. And surely enough there were a couple of incidents. Sadly, the Legault family was dealing with the situation that I was first presented with back in the fall of Elliot’s high school education being reduced to two hours of learning a day—two hours. What does that mean for his dad, Steve, and his mom, Carrie? What it means is, Carrie is the full-time, stay-at-home educator. Carrie is not allowed to pursue her professional employment because we do not have the requisite staff to be able to help Elliot in Elliot’s learning journey—quite frankly, not just Elliot’s: It’s everybody’s learning journey when you have a mixed environment and kids learn how to interact with different kids who learn differently. So the Legault family is told by fiat that their son is only entitled to two hours of education a day.

I was made aware of a mom recently in Durham who just recently found out that her seven-year-old son has not been allowed outside for recess since October—since October. Why? Because staff worry that he is a flight risk. Staff worry that there is a conflict brewing at any corner, and they do not have EA resources, so the child stays inside for recess.

This is what happens. This is what happens when you short public education, and it doesn’t go away by talking about 2,000 staff who are math coaches who magically might be able to present themselves to a classroom one day and help Elliot or help this seven-year-old I’m talking about. It doesn’t.

So then the problem in this bill, as I understand it, gets even more complicated, Speaker, because in a context where this government is proposing enhancements to funding, enhancements to staff, but actually cutting the ability of school boards and schools and staff to provide that support, they’re blaming school boards for improper governance. I would never say, Speaker, that there aren’t problems at a school board level, certainly as there aren’t problems in this building with how we interact and make decisions. There’s always going to be, and you have to have good governance processes to hold people accountable, absolutely—absolutely. But beginning with the supposition of negativity is a problem.

It also concerned me, Speaker, that the Ottawa public school boards’ association—I might have gotten the acronym wrong—the body that’s responsible for bringing together the school boards to advocate here was not consulted on this bill. They found out about it in the media. Can you imagine, Speaker, for any one of us, if we were presented with a project of law a constituent wanted us to embrace, and that constituent just took to the media and said, “My MPP is lousy because they don’t care about my issue,” but we’ve never been consulted on it in the past and someone just holds forth and questions our integrity? We would be outraged, wouldn’t we? We would feel like we were being disrespected. But that is precisely what this government is doing to school boards right now.

So I want to invite this government, if they’re listening, to redo this process. If you’re actually interested in code of conduct policies—proper code of conduct policies that will help make sure that when there is a complaint about staff behaviour or trustee behaviour amongst each other—I want the government today in debate to confirm that they will consult with public school board authorities, consult with employee groups and parent organizations, put in as much effort as they did into the physical and health education curriculum of 2018. Do you remember that, Speaker? They went out on the road with that, and they found out from communities that their approach was wrong. I want them to put a similar amount of resources and effort into the issue of code of conduct.

I’ll tell you why, Speaker. There’s a disturbing story from my own community that I take to heart, that not a day when I walk into this place do I not think about. A very prominent trustee in our community for the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board is Dr. Nili Kaplan-Myrth. Dr. Nili Kaplan-Myrth runs a family health organization. She’s a family physician with an incredible pedigree and reputation in our town. Why? She was one of the primary health care providers during the pandemic that brought the immunization wave, the wave of mass immunizations that happened in our community, particularly for essential workers: people working in grocery stores, warehouses, trucking, the occupations that were essential, but they weren’t health care. It was Dr. Nili Kaplan-Myrth that came to be known as a major organizer in our community for her work on mass immunization. Her efforts immunized over 15,000 people. They were called “Jabapalooza” efforts. They filled up entire streets—the Fourth Avenue where her clinic is based, the Common Ground family health organization clinic. You could see the street; she worked on it with the city. The road was blocked off, with people backed up for a long way, because they were scared about going to work if they weren’t protected through immunization; they were scared about passing on a virus to an immunocompromised loved one.

Dr. Nili Kaplan-Myrth came to be known in our town for being a leader because of her work in the pandemic. And then, because of her experience in public advocacy, she decided, “I want to serve the public more.” So she ran to be a trustee of the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board in the very area where her clinic is based.

Trustee Kaplan-Myrth is also the first—to my knowledge, at least—elected Jewish trustee we have had in the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board in a long time. And sadly, given what we have seen in some quarters of social media, she has been subjected to a tremendous amount of hate and anti-Semitic vitriol—constant. It’s gotten to the point, Speaker—I want this said for the record. I won’t read the text of the emails Trustee Kaplan-Myrth has received, but it’s gotten to the point where every single day she’s receiving a death threat from anonymous email accounts. That’s not an exaggeration—every single day. That is what she is dealing with.

So what has her approach been from advocacy to change the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board? On January 18, 2023, she went to the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board with a proposal to hire a Jewish equity coach, because there had been a number of disturbing incidents of anti-Semitism in schools and because of what she had experienced herself. The board unanimously adopted that approach, and the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board has set in motion by which schools can start to grapple—led by leaders in our Jewish and this Jewish equity coach—with dealing with the issue of anti-Semitism. Something to do—they didn’t ask for the government’s help in this. Trustee Dr. Nili Kaplan-Myrth led that effort.

So what I would tell this government if they want to revamp code of conduct processes is to talk to Dr. Nili. Talk to Trustee Nili. Talk to advocates in other school boards who have had to deal with awful incidents of hate in the classroom and awful incidences of hate that they’ve received as elected officials and ask them for their advice, because your provincial code of conduct will be better from those engagements. I’m happy to send along all the contact information I have from the rather ugly chapter that continues to unfold in our city.

I also, for the record, want to shout-out Proton Mail. Why, Speaker? Because Trustee Kaplan-Myrth approached Proton Mail—which if people don’t know about, it’s an encrypted form of email you can sign up to. This is where a lot of the hate for Trustee Kaplan-Myrth has come from: sources that can’t be traced. And this company, when Trustee Kaplan-Myrth reached out to them, was horrified at the hate being spread out from their platform, and volunteered—

Merci, madame la Présidente. Ça me fait tant rire, comment le monde a de la misère, encore, après cinq ans, à dire « Mushkegowuk–Baie James ».

Mais ceci dit, ça m’impressionne tout le temps quand on voit un gouvernement mettre ça tellement beau et tellement rose dans l’éducation francophone, quand la réalité est complètement différente. On a une demande de 700 enseignants dont on a besoin dans l’éducation franco-ontarienne quand on sait que le gouvernement n’en propose que 500. Fait que, il va en manquer en quelque part. Par 2025, si on ne répond pas au besoin, on va être rendu à 3 000 professeurs ou enseignants qui vont manquer dans nos conseils scolaires. On sait que, juste pour les personnes non qualifiées qui enseignent dans nos écoles francophones, ça a augmenté à 450 %. Ce n’est pas un bon record, là. On va arrêter de se péter les bretelles, parce que j’aurais honte un petit peu, moi, d’essayer de faire croire à la population franco-ontarienne que tout va bien dans nos écoles.

J’aimerais vous entendre dire à la communauté franco-ontarienne les vrais—je veux entendre les vrais chiffres, parce que les vrais chiffres, c’est ce que je viens de vous dire. Je ne les invente pas. J’aimerais vous—

This morning, I listened to the MPP from Ottawa West–Nepean, our education critic, describe what’s actually happening in schools, and I wonder what else in wonderland these members are talking about, because what we are seeing in our schools are students who do not have access to mental health supports. We see students who are losing teachers and educators and aides in the classroom. We see a deteriorating condition when it comes to the actual physical environment that they’re in. We also know, despite the numbers that this government likes to throw around, that if you actually look at the numbers, if your funding was to keep up with inflation, that would be $2.5 billion more. You talk about getting back to basics. To me, basics would be a safe, warm classroom for kids, with a teacher.

I’m just going to ask the member to bring his remarks back to the debate that we’re focusing on today.

I recognize the member from Peterborough–Kawartha.

I recognize the member from Peterborough–Kawartha.