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.

Point of order.

I thank the member for Ottawa Centre for his address today. Math and literacy are two of the most important things we can be teaching our children. My children are all out of school, but we’ve got 12 grandchildren.

Today, we keep hearing from the NDP that they just like the status quo and they don’t really want to see improvements into the numbers that are not positive in our school system. I am thankful to Minister Lecce for bringing transformational change to our system.

You’ve read the bill. I know you’ve read the bill. You see what we’re talking about: thousands of teachers and leaders skilled in literacy and math to improve those test scores and the outcomes among our children and grandchildren in schools. I know you like the status quo over there, because you don’t like to make changes and you don’t like to ruffle the feathers of your friends. Believe me, there was lots on consultation, not with the NDP. We don’t consult with the NDP.

But are you going to sit there and tell me today that what we have brought forth in this bill will not lead to improved outcomes and scores from our children—

À mon collègue d’Ottawa-Centre, c’est tout le temps un plaisir de t’entendre parler ici en Chambre.

Je vais te poser la même question que j’ai posée au gouvernement, qui semble toujours mettre ça plus beau que c’est en réalité. On sait que dans le système d’éducation en français, il nous manque 700 éducateurs. On sait, par 2025, si on ne fait rien, il va nous en manquer 3 000. On sait aussi que le gouvernement parle de 500. Ça veut dire, encore—on a un droit constitutionnel d’avoir les mêmes services puis les mêmes droits auxquels n’importe quel anglophone et auxquels les enfants anglophones ont droit.

Je vous demande pourquoi le gouvernement s’acharne toujours—toujours—sur la francophonie, qu’il ne délivre pas les services dont on a besoin. Les enfants francophones ont les mêmes droits en éducation. J’aimerais entendre votre—

Je suis d’accord avec le point de vue de mon collègue. Si on a une province qui a deux langues fondatrices, s’il y a des personnes avec le droit constitutionnel qu’ils peuvent s’éduquer dans la langue maternelle de leur choix, on doit le faire. Ce n’est pas optionnel. Ce n’est pas optionnel.

Mais je crois que la communauté franco-ontarienne sait tellement bien que ce gouvernement, ce n’est pas un ami. Ce n’est pas un vrai ami. Ils disent de bonnes choses—« on peut embaucher les gens »—mais s’ils ne dépensent pas les fonds nécessaires pour le faire, c’est seulement des mots.

I’ve enjoyed getting to know the member but I’ve got to just say a few things. First of all, this government presided over the most lost class days of anywhere in North America because of its abject failure to take the pandemic seriously at the time when they did. That’s the first thing.

Secondly, the other critical point they need to understand is that nobody on this side of the House ever once said a student with special needs did not have a right to get into their classroom and learn. We never, ever spent a day without thanking the staff for going in to help them. But on this side of the House we don’t just believe in words. We believe in raising the revenue required to put into the system so those children and that staff can do their jobs well. These guys are just about words. They’re just about platitudes. They’re just about wonderful aspirational things while shorting the system, underfunding kids and underfunding our staff.

The mom of the seven-year-old I spoke about earlier has started a practice of going to her school three times a day so her kid can get fresh air and walk around. This is absolute insanity. We are a first-world country. We are one of the world’s leading jurisdictions in public educational achievement and we are putting students with disabilities under the school bus right now. That’s what we’re doing. We have to stop that. We have to make sure there’s adequate funding for special education, and this government has to move beyond rhetoric and move into a funding position to deliver on the promises they’re making.

This is the thing: I don’t think you’d find a person in this building who would be opposed to more accountability, but when you begin a project of law without actually consulting the key partners in the education sector, how good is your experiment likely to be? Consult all the single stakeholders, please. There are good practices out there. Follow them.

I’m so excited to be able to ask a question, because this has been very entertaining, frankly. The member opposite talked about underfunding, but everything, according to the NDP, is underfunded. I would just point out that per-student spending for elementary students in Canada is $13,125, and in the UK, that same number is about C$10,000.

Beyond that, you’re talking about Elliot; Elliot has special needs. I am very passionate about making sure that we have resources for special-needs children. What this bill does is make sure that we know what the special-needs funding—which we’ve increased and are giving to schools—is being spent on. That’s what parents want to know, because I’ve had special-needs teachers in my office tell me it’s not being spent on special-needs teachers. I want to see it spent on special-needs teachers.

Further questions?

It is an absolute honour to be here. I believe that the education of our children might be the most important issue facing us today, so I’m very thankful for this opportunity to stand before you and provide my full support to the Better Schools and Student Outcomes Act. Once again, it’s an honour for me to represent the hard-working people of Thornhill and to stand up for the hard-working Thornhill families. I want to thank the minister for bringing this forward, along with his amazing team.

When I speak with parents in Thornhill, they tell me they’re concerned about the quality of education their kids are receiving, and they wonder if it will do an adequate job of preparing them for the years ahead. To be honest with you, as a parent of children in the school system, I share this concern. I’m always worried about the outcome of my child, not just today but in the years to come. We want to set our children up for success.

Sadly, this particular concern amongst parents has been around for a very long time. I hope that my Liberal and NDP friends will take some time to look at a report that was issued by the Royal Commission on Learning, chaired by Monique Begin and Gerald Caplan back in 1995. To quote from the report, “Many parents came to us with shocking evidence of kids who finished high school yet wrote with all the sophistication of a nine-year old, of report cards that seemed deliberately contrived to sound like gibberish, of schools that made them feel unwelcome, intimidated, indifferent to them and not much more engaged with their children.”

Nearly all of the parents I encounter—and I encounter quite a few. This is a reality for me. Like a few members in this House, when I go home, I hang up my hat as a member of the community and I become a mother. What I believe in is the idea of public education, but their school or their school board needs to be far more accountable to families and taxpayers. I agree with them.

Before I discuss the many merits of this bill, I also want to thank the Minister of Education for taking such a strong stance against anti-Semitism in schools and making learning about the Holocaust mandatory in the grade 6 curriculum. He did this back in February, and secondary school teachers within the Toronto District School Board were subjected to a professional day presented by the OSSTF teachers’ union regarding a false narrative of anti-Palestinian racism. Many teachers who attended described the presentation as hateful, anti-Semitic and anti-Israel.

This is a predominantly concerning issue for me, not just today but literally every day in Thornhill. I can pick up my phone right now, and I can tell you about a school that has just described an anti-Semitic incident—in my own son’s school. This happened just yesterday—just yesterday. This is a reality for me.

While other people have turned their backs, Minister Lecce has not. He has always embraced this, and he has come to us and been there for us. Combatting anti-Semitism in schools is just one bold action that the minister has taken over the past four years to improve education in our province.

Our government was the first to mandate anti-sex-trafficking protocols, and we implemented a lifetime ban on any educator found guilty of a serious Criminal Code offence like sexual abuse or violence. In fact, we went even further by publicly posting the names of any educators involved in serious criminal proceedings with the aims of enhancing transparency for parents and protecting kids, because it’s always about protecting kids.

In our government’s first term, the Minister of Education revoked regulation 274, which was a regressive hiring rule that was brought in by the Liberals to appease the teachers’ unions. Now, instead of simply rewarding years of seniority, teacher hirings by school boards will be dictated by merit, where qualifications and experience guide hiring.

Regulation 274 was not the only Liberal mess our government cleaned up in the education file, Speaker. You may also remember the previous government disadvantaged countless numbers of students by closing over 600 schools across Ontario. After a decade of school closures, Ontario is once again building schools to prepare young people for the jobs of tomorrow. Those children are mine; they live in my home right now. We’re investing over $15 billion over 10 years to support school construction, improve existing structures and create new child care spaces.

Perhaps more importantly, the Ministry of Education has been busy updating the curriculum to ensure it does a better job of getting students ready for the workforce. In simple terms, that has meant focusing on more science and math, including digital and financial literary, and encouraging more students to take a good look at the skilled trades for lucrative and rewarding careers.

In the 1994 report I just mentioned, it said there is “a shared concern out there. It’s that Ontario’s schools aren’t equipped to deal with the future—a problem significantly exacerbated by our utter ignorance of what that future might bring.” The future is here now. We’re living it right now. Speaker, we know there’s a growing demand for jobs in the skilled trades, and that in the tech sectors, we need to promote learning STEM skills. I believe our government is definitely on the right track with respect to that.

These are real and meaningful accomplishments that have improved Ontario’s system of education to the benefit of students and parents. Clearly, the Minister of Education is driving transformational change, and the bill that we are debating is a necessary step toward improving education in Ontario.

Our legislation will increase accountability by giving parents new tools to navigate and understand the education system while establishing basic qualifications for directors of education. Additionally, the minister will now be able to establish key priorities to ensure students have the skills and knowledge they need, especially in areas such as reading, writing and math. These are the core places.

Should it pass this House, the Better Schools and Student Outcomes Act would enact over 20 necessary reforms, but I’d like to focus my remarks on a few measures that will increase accountability and transparency in the education system.

I believe most school boards are doing a relatively good job of educating our children. Ontario enjoys a five-year graduation rate of 89%, which is a key contributor to the province’s economic growth. Unfortunately, thousands of students annually are not graduating high school within five years, and eight out of Ontario’s 72 school boards have consistently shown the lowest performance in the five-year graduation rate in the past nine years.

To add to this problem, the Ministry of Education has limited ability to drive or enforce provincial priorities through to schools and school boards, and information about school board performance, education spending and how that money supports education outcomes is not easily accessible to parents, taxpayers or the public at large.

Just to put this in proper context, Speaker, Ontario’s school boards receive over $27 billion in provincial funding to operate over 4,600 school facilities and a complex system of transportation. Some boards say they can’t make do with the money they have, even though our government is making record investments in education and funding has increased every year we have been in government. Understandably, many hard-working families in Thornhill and across this province are a bit confused about where all that money is going. Families have questions about their local school board’s ability to manage money, and they deserve answers.

To address these issues, our government’s legislation, should it pass this House, will:

—set provincial priorities on student achievement, require performance reporting and strengthen ministry powers to address variable board performance;

—require school board transparency in funding and outcomes;

—direct and/or prohibit school board participation prescribed business activities;

—empower the minister to send in support personnel to boards failing to align with provincial priorities and create corresponding obligations for school boards to co-operate;

—enhance financial accountability of school board-controlled entities to the public; and

—amend the Education Act to support the creation of an accelerated apprenticeship pathway starting in grade 11.

That’s an important factor because we want our kids to be exposed to the skilled trades, hands down. These are prudent, common-sense reforms that make school boards more accountable and transparent to families and taxpayers.

Our government is committing to taking a more prominent role in the performance of our education system, and that starts by passing the Better Schools and Student Outcomes Act. Families and taxpayers demand and deserve greater accountability and transparency from their school boards. Speaker, I hope that all of us in the House can at least agree upon that.

I’m proud of our government’s actions to update the curriculum and ensure our schools are safe and welcoming, and I’m proud of this minister for delivering a thoughtful reform bill that will help make sure all parts of Ontario’s education system are unified in putting students first.

I’m going to be sharing my time with the member from Chatham-Kent–Leamington. Thank you very much.

I know personally I am always pleased to hear members, typically from this side of the House, speak in this House to talk about our kids within the school system who have special needs. Particularly we definitely hear from families with children with autism who are pushed out of school on a regular basis, not able to attend full-hour days. Poor Elliot was able to get two hours a day. I hear from families on a regular basis where they are not able to get into the schools at all due to the lack of EAs and supports in the system.

Maybe the member would like to go a little further on what he thinks should be in the bill to be able to support these students, along with the necessary funding.

I find this presentation very interesting. The member’s presentation didn’t really talk about the bill. It talked about everything but the bill. The bill is talking about accountability and transparency. That is very important for every board, especially around special education. Why wouldn’t you want to support transparency for monies being spent on special education?

When you talk about consultation that was not done, trustees voted on a code of conduct before COVID. We just hadn’t implemented it. There was already a survey for all trustees to put together a standardized code of conduct. That is what we are doing now.

I find it also interesting, that story you told about the child that went to school during COVID. That child would not have been able to go to school because the NDP didn’t want special education students in school during COVID. That you can very well see.

My question is, why don’t you want parents to have accountability? Why do you not want students to do better? Why do you not support the bill and talk about what is in the bill?

Thank you, Speaker—

Interjection.

It’s an absolute honour to rise in the House today and offer my full support to the Better Schools and Student Outcomes Act. Ever since our government was first elected in 2018, we’ve been busy ensuring our schools are safe, welcoming and inclusive learning centres for all students and modernizing the curriculum to ensure it’s preparing young people for the jobs of tomorrow.

And once again, the government of Ontario is investing in schools and in our province’s next generation. I’m pleased to say that after a decade, when the previous Liberal government closed over 600 schools across the province, our government is investing $15 billion over 10 years to build new schools, improve existing facilities and create new child care spaces for working parents.

Our hard-working people in Chatham-Kent–Leamington who pay their taxes and play by the rules have been very clear: They value public education, and they’re happy to invest in public education, but they want it to focus on preparing young people for the workforce, and they believe the system needs to be more accountable.

For the most part, Ontario is on the right track—for the most part. We’re among the top-performing education systems nationally and internationally. Our leading five-year graduation rate of 89% is a key contributor to our economic growth, and it supports efforts to maximize the productive capacity of our future labour force.

But, unfortunately, Speaker, our education system is not firing on all cylinders at the moment. This new legislation proposes specific remedies to get our system back on track. The performance of our public education system can be tangibly improved through greater accountability and transparency, better governance and leadership, maximizing school capital assets, training teachers for modern-day classrooms and ensuring there’s more consistent information and approaches to student learning. Speaker, those key reforms are the basis of the Better Schools and Student Outcomes Act.

Our government has accomplished a great deal on this file over the past five years, but further transformational change requires both legislation and updated regulations. Speaker, if our legislation is passed, the Better Schools and Student Outcomes Act will increase accountability by giving parents new tools to navigate and understand the education system and basic qualifications for the directors of education who oversee our school boards. This act will allow the minister to establish key priorities to ensure students have the skills and knowledge they need, especially in areas of reading, writing and math.

If passed, this act would legislate reforms under four statutes: the Education Act, the Ontario College of Teachers Act, the Early Childhood Educators Act and the Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2001. Speaker, our government’s legislation will enact over 20 key recommendations across five themed categories, including, of course, accountability and transparency, governance and leadership, maximizing capital assets, teacher training and oversight, and consistent information and approaches to student learning. Clearly, these five themes are incredibly important to reforming our education system, but I’d like to spend a few moments on discussing teacher education and oversight.

Teaching is a special, important and challenging calling. I want to be clear: The great majority of teachers are dedicated professionals who deeply care about their students. I respect their work and our teachers, and so do my friends and colleagues on both sides of this House. Teachers like my amazing wife and many of our dearest friends are responsible for preparing our students for post-secondary education and entering the modern workforce. We need to make sure they have the very best people in front of them in every classroom.

Unfortunately, Speaker, teacher education programs do not currently provide consistent training in the fundamentals required by teachers and students, such as math, literacy, special education, mental health and technology in the classroom. Additionally, Speaker, the Ontario College of Teachers is not certifying teachers at the rate where they’re needed, and many believe that teacher disciplinary processes should be enhanced to improve overall student safety.

Should this pass, Speaker, the Better Schools and Student Outcomes Act would fundamentally change teacher training to be more holistic across the learning continuum, aligning with school structure and student needs. It would require initial teacher education programs in all faculties of education to include topics that are consistent with enabling teachers to graduate with a minimum of grade 9 math proficiency, appropriate proficiencies in literacy, enhanced learning and awareness of evidence-based approaches to teaching students with special needs, and appropriate learning in mental health and wellness.

Should it pass, Speaker, the Better Schools and Student Outcomes Act would remove barriers by introducing alternative certification pathways for priority groups and expediting entry into the workforce for individuals with relevant work experience. Our government would work with the Ontario College of Teachers to create more flexible certification options that will get more qualified teachers in the classroom faster, where they’re needed. We’ll also work with key stakeholders such as our Ministry of Colleges and Universities, Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development and faculties of education to develop real opportunities for flexible, accelerated initial teacher education programs to better attract mid-career teacher candidates in needed areas such as French-language education.

This bill would increase public confidence in the regulation of the teaching professions and the protection of students by amending the Ontario College of Teachers Act, 1996, by: specifically allowing for student victims of alleged sexual abuse, child pornography or criminal sexual acts by any teacher to receive funding for therapy; and clarifying certification reinstatement timelines for individuals who have had their licences revoked, so that it would take five years from the date of revocation before an individual may seek reinstatement from the college.

I have no doubt that parents and the broader public will support these very reasonable measures. There is no question that real reforms are needed and they have been needed for many years. This goes way back to the 1994 Royal Commission on Learning that then-Premier Bob Rae initialized.

To sum it up, “There’s no excuse for bad teachers....” And quite frankly, there must always be a priority for the student to have learning over an inadequate teacher’s right to a permanent job—it’s fundamental. Quite frankly, it is universal. Teachers should be trained in the fundamentals of math, reading and special education, as well as mental health, and our college of teachers needs to be empowered to protect our most vulnerable.

This government is listening to concerns across this province and across my riding of Chatham-Kent–Leamington. This act is driving transformational change—

Further debate?

I want to thank the member opposite for her question. As a mother, we want to get value for our educational dollar. The Better Schools and Student Outcomes Act advances vision for the education system that is centred upon preparing students.

When we talk about funding, this past Monday we announced a historic investment by providing $27.6 billion for public education for 2023-24. As I said in my presentation, this has grown every year. Our government has continued to make these historic investments every year in the face of stagnant enrolment. We’re continuing to put in, but we need to see the results.

My question would be, does the member of the opposition want to see value for dollars spent?

I thank my honourable colleague for that question. I policed during a time when police officers and law enforcement members were part of that learning community. We were part of the fabric. We coached, we entered the classroom, we spoke about civics, we spoke about public service, we spoke about duty to the community. Now that time has passed, or at least it’s on pause.

But teachers also appreciated that. Teachers appreciated their colleagues from the community, committed to community service, for coming into the classroom and mentoring and inspiring our youth, coaching our youth and acting as liaisons, safe people to go to with questions and concerns.

The disciplinary processes right now are a bit too loose. We need to make sure that all safe spaces for learning are truly safe and that unions can’t influence the outcomes of, perhaps, disciplinary actions that should be directed toward the college and toward law enforcement, to keep only the best teachers in front of the classroom.

Thank you to the members opposite for their comments. Let’s talk about this government’s record for a moment. Because what we learned this week is that:

—there are now four fewer high school teachers for every 1,000 secondary students in Ontario than there were five years ago;

—there is $1,200 less per student in funding than under the Liberals, once you’ve accounted for inflation;

—90% of schools have no regularly scheduled access to mental health professionals;

—50% of schools have no access to mental health resources at all; and

—schools across the province have a shortage of teachers and educational assistants.

Why do the members think that school boards are going to be able to deliver more with fewer resources for our students? And why are they talking about school board responsibility instead of ministerial responsibility?

To the member from Chatham-Kent–Leamington, you really touched on something that I think a lot of parents can appreciate. With a career spanning many years in law enforcement, I wonder if maybe you could touch on some of the things that you have seen in regard to sexual harassment and different things like that that we have seen and that still continue, unfortunately, to happen within our school boards and within our public education system.