It is now time for questions and answers.

Thank you to the two presenters. I’m really excited about how this bill can create success for our next generation. I see that schools are taking too long to build, and they are getting more and more expensive. What is this bill going to do to help us so that we can prepare the school boards so that nothing gets delayed and we still have a top-quality learning environment for our students to accommodate this unprecedented growth?

Further questions?

It’s now time for further debate.

I honestly really appreciate the member opposite for his question and his statement. This is a reality in my community, and my vision is no different from any other parent in my community. Of course, anti-Semitism is a very real reality that we need to talk about, and it’s not just specific to Thornhill; it’s Canada-wide, North America-wide, worldwide.

My vision is to have students who are prepared for the next generation of jobs, so STEM is an absolute necessity for the next generation. Science, learning math: We’ve had very poor numbers in math, and I say that as a person who sat in school council and watched the numbers, in a library filled with other parents who would watch things go through. Our vision is accountability for the future students of Ontario.

Parents and families expect accountability and transparency and responsiveness from their school boards, and they deserve access to publicly available and easy-to-understand—I’m going to underline “easy-to-understand”—information about how their school board is performing and how they are spending public funds to support student outcomes.

Every day, parents tell me that they receive information from their children’s schools. They get permission slips, updates on class activities, requests to take part in fundraising, artwork, report cards—the list is as endless as their backpacks are full.

Yet one piece of information they don’t receive is how their children’s school is performing. Ontario’s 2021-22 EQAO assessment results show weaker performance in math across all grades and reading and writing in grade 3. You were just referencing this.

I know that our proposed legislation includes setting provincial education priorities for boards. How does requiring school boards to provide progress reports on provincial education priorities for student achievement support student success?

Thank you for that question from my colleague. We’ve heard time and time again across the province on consultation, the need for greater accountability, because it’s directly linked to student achievement. The data collected by boards also shows the urgent need to address gaps in student outcomes. The reforms proposed in this bill will respond directly to these concerns and, I think, the shared concerns from my colleague from across the floor.

The ministry and our team know that it’s partners who have considerable knowledge, experience and expertise. We consult our partners for the best outcomes, and that’s what this bill will do.

This government did no consultation with parents or parents’ groups in putting this education bill forward, so let me read into the record a letter that I received from a school, from the school council of the Cootes Paradise Elementary School in my riding, who wrote to myself and the minister. They said immediate action is needed in their schools.

The letter says, in part, “Our children with additional needs are not getting the education they deserve. We demand better for our children. There are three primary issues: insufficient funding, EAs needed in every kindergarten class and transparent contingency plans needed for staff absences. There’s a lack of funding for EAs provincewide.”

They conclude by saying, “It’s time to act on your promises, invest in EAs, hire enough of them, pay them what they deserve, mandate at least one EA per kindergarten class, plan for contingencies.”

My question is, why did this government not spend $600 million of federal COVID dollars? Why did you underspend your education budget by $500 million? This would have helped the school in my riding, Cootes Paradise Elementary School, to deal with the problems that they’re facing right now.

It is a pleasure to rise today to participate in this debate as the representative of my community of London West, but also as a school board trustee who served on the Thames Valley District School Board for 13 years. There is nothing I would appreciate more than having a meaningful debate about ensuring better schools and improving student outcomes. But unfortunately, I don’t think that’s what we are doing here today with this legislation.

If this government was actually serious about ensuring better schools and student outcomes, they would have done the consultation that would be necessary to make that happen. They would have talked to the teachers unions, to the educators who work in our school system. They would have talked to principals. They would have talked to school board trustees. They would have talked to parents across this province, and yet we have heard nothing about a consultation that took place prior to the drafting of this bill, and we have heard nothing from the minister about what actually informed the legislation that is before us today.

I have to commend my colleague the critic for education, the member for Ottawa West–Nepean, who points out quite rightly that this government is nothing more than smoke and mirrors. It is an attempt to deflect the attention of the public away from the very critical issues that are present in our schools that face parents and young people in our province every day and instead deflect blame onto school boards, to teacher unions and to whoever else the government wants to assign responsibility for the problems that they have created through years of underfunding.

Speaker, I wanted to begin with a contrast to the major governance overhaul that we see in this legislation versus the last time in this province that an education governance review was undertaken. It was in 2009. It was prior to my election to this place, but I was a trustee on the Thames Valley District School Board and a vice-president of the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association.

A governance review committee was struck to take an in-depth look at school board governance and look at how we could actually improve school boards, improve the functioning of school boards to better support students in the province. The committee that was struck had representation from the four publicly funded school boards in the province; had representation from the Canadian Education Association, who participated in the process as a representative of the community; and also had representation from a former director of education. That committee met with representatives of 70 school boards in the province, 137 trustees, 54 directors of education, 71 parent representatives. There were 148 written responses to the consultation paper on school board governance. That process led to legislation that was introduced by the Liberals to refocus school board governance in Ontario. It’s a stark contrast to the process—to the absence of process—that this government was engaged in in order to bring this legislation forward today.

But one of the fundamental principles that came out of that governance review process was the obligation of school boards to maintain a joint and equal focus on both student achievement and well-being. What we see in this legislation is the government putting well-being to the bottom of the pile. This Conservative government has no interest in ensuring that students are able to function in our school system and deal with the mental health impacts—the ongoing, worsening mental health impacts—of the pandemic, the increasing numbers of students with special needs who are in our school system, and ensuring that every student in this province has the resources and the supports they need to be successful. We are seeing in our school system data showing how students’ needs are increasing. The complexity of needs is increasing and the ability to access supports is declining.

There was a recent study from People for Education that was released in February on the mental health crisis in our schools. That report found that, in just three years, the number of students who described their mental health as good or excellent had dropped 12%, from 73% in 2019 to only 61% in 2022. But even more alarming, that report cited research from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health that said 59% of Ontario students stated that the pandemic had made them feel depressed about the future and 39% reported that it made their mental health worse. What kinds of resources and supports are available in our schools to help students cope with the mental health stresses of the pandemic? There’s almost nothing in our school system, Speaker.

People for Education reported that 95% of schools said that they needed some or more support for students’ mental health and well-being. Only 9% of schools in Ontario said they have regularly scheduled access to mental health and addiction specialists or nurses. Almost half of schools had no access whatsoever to specialized mental health or addiction supports; 28% of schools said that they had no access to a psychologist, which is almost double the percentage just 10 years ago; 93% of schools said that they needed support staff such as educational assistants, administrators and custodians. We don’t see those additional supports that school boards have identified as being so desperately lacking in our schools in this legislation that is before us today. Nor did we see it in the funding announcement that the government released at almost the same time as this bill came forward.

Instead, the government announced GSNs, Grants for Student Needs, that include only a 2.7% increase over the GSNs from last year. Everyone in this place knows how inflation has been hitting our wallets and our ability to ensure affordability. Everybody in this place knows that a 2.7% increase is far below the rate of inflation and therefore represents a cut. We see total funding that’s available for school boards in Ontario that’s $2.5 billion short of where it would have been if school board funding had kept up with inflation since this government was elected in 2018.

We also know, thank goodness, from the Financial Accountability Officer, who is providing some transparency on school board funding—this government says this legislation is necessary for transparency. We appreciate the work of the Financial Accountability Officer, who showed us that this government is actually spending $1.1 billion dollars less than planned in education during the 2022-23 budget.

This increase to the GSNs that the government has announced works out on a per-student basis to represent an increase of one half of 1% for every student in our school. Their so-called plan for math education works out to less than 50 cents per student per day. Their plan to hire new education workers works out to one educator for every 6,650 students across the province. The legislation, along with the GSN announcement, is going to do nothing to actually provide the supports that students need in our school system.

I want to share some information, some emails that I have received from parents in London West about what is actually happening in our school system. This is a parent who said her daughter is in senior elementary. She has identified learning disabilities. She says, “Because of her learning disabilities, she has been in a particularly high-needs cohort with severe behaviour and mental health needs that go unaddressed annually. The particular behaviours in her cohort have led to teachers opting for early retirement, needing to access sick leave, choosing to leave the profession altogether. Sadly, the school has lost teachers seven out of eight years in the grade that this cohort reaches, including one teacher who was assaulted by a student and another one who passed away—unconfirmed stress-related condition.”

This parent asks, “Why is the government not providing access to reading support programs?” She said that there were a number of students in her daughter’s class who were struggling, yet only six students per year were able to access the program funded by this government to provide daily instruction. Her daughter had to wait three years and was almost denied as she was already in grade 6.

The parent asked how many of her daughter’s peers have similar literacy and numeracy learning challenges “without the ability to access what we have managed to track down independently?” This is a two-parent family who had the resources to get some additional support for their daughter.

She says, “How will the current government’s underfunding education affect my daughter’s future employment opportunities now that she is only five years away from the full-time job market?” These are all very good questions, and there are no answers for this parent in the legislation that we have before us today.

I want to share a submission that was made by the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario Thames Valley Local during the pre-budget consultation in February. That submission references a systemic and pervasive crisis that is characterized by an increase in the number and severity of violent acts in schools, large numbers of teachers off work due to injury and mental health issues caused by violence and students who are immersed in and increasingly inured to the violence that surrounds them every day. They point to a six-month average of 636 violent incidents per month, which means that Thames Valley District School Board is on track to report 6,360 violent incidents by the end of the 2022-23 school year. Much of that is due to those mental health challenges that I spoke to earlier with students who are experiencing increased mental health crises and do not have access to the programs that they need to support them.

The other thing missing from the government’s GSNs is funding to actually address the backlog of maintenance and repair that we have seen built up under the Liberals and worsen—close to $17 billion now—under this government. Thames Valley District School Board is facing a backlog of $700 million in maintenance and repair, and if that were to include HVAC updates and AODA compliance, that backlog rises to $900 million over the next five years. And yet, nothing in this government’s budget or GSNs addresses that huge backlog of maintenance and repair that has built up in this province.

Thames Valley District School Board is also very worried about the fact that this government decided to discontinue the tutoring supports that were available for students coming out of the pandemic, which they saw as being very valuable and beneficial to students.

The other issue that I’m hearing about in London West related to school board funding, and again, not addressed in this legislation, not addressed in the GSNs, is the need to fund transportation to our schools. If kids can’t get to school, they’re not going to be able to learn.

Parent Vanisse Victoriano wrote to me to say, “I am a mother of two lovely kids. My 13-year-old keeps missing school due to a school bus shortage situation, bus delays and bus cancellations. My daughter’s school had five bus line cancellations today alone due to bus driver shortage.” This email was written to me in February.

She says, “I urge and beg you to help increase the bus driver wages so we don’t keep having this problem over and over again. The problem will only resolve once government starts paying better wages to bus drivers so that will attract more people to work as bus drivers”—

Thank you very much, Speaker. I was here yesterday when the minister spoke to the bill and he did spend some time on the GSNs and what the funding was covering. I’m just pointing out some of what the GSNs are not covering that people in London West have highlighted as a gap.

I heard from some school bus drivers also who say, “Due to a funding shortage, we have been forced to cut back on the number of buses and routes in our region. That means that often, despite my efforts and those of my colleagues, students are late or not picked up at all.” He says, “We are doing everything we can, but the system is under extreme pressure and it may buckle at any time. Please, for the sake of the students across this province, give the system emergency funding so that I can do my job and we won’t leave kids stranded.” These are some of the issues that we are hearing about in London West, as well as the need for new schools.

Now, this bill includes some provisions for the disposition of surplus property. The challenge that we are facing in London—it’s the fastest-growing city in Ontario, second fastest in Canada; it is seeing explosive population growth in areas outside the city, and this government continues to move forward with a funding formula that basically guarantees that the moment a new school finally opens its doors, there are going to be 10, 12, 15 portables on the site because, the way that new school construction is funded, it is planned around the number of students who are living in the community at the time that the new school is approved and does not take into account the planning projections for the number of students who are actually going to be in that area. We have seen a huge need for new schools, certainly in the northwest area of the city—terrible overcrowding in our schools, which is not good for student learning.

We know that what students actually need to be successful in schools are those resources and supports that I talked about. It’s an educator in front of a classroom; it’s reducing class sizes; it’s ensuring that we have caring adults in the school system to support kids who need supports.

As much as I would have liked to be able to actually talk about better schools and student outcomes, I’m not able to do that today because this bill does nothing to ensure that our students will actually be better off in our schools.

Point of order, I recognize the member from Barrie–Innisfil.

I’d like to thank the member from London West for her comments and for showing how this piece of legislation does not have any focus on student achievement and well-being whatsoever. It comes down to the funding. The member has shown how this government has cut $1,200 per student since 2018 and how the math investment that they would like to pat themselves on the back for amounts to about 50 cents per student. Adding one educator for 6,650 students—that’s one big classroom.

I would like to ask the member, how could this government modify this legislation to actually address student outcomes first and foremost?

Point of order, Speaker.

There’s a lot to unpack there, but I am glad that the member from London West brings up reading programs. My wife has been a teacher for over 10 years, a special education teacher here in Toronto, and every year—

Interjection.

To the parent from London West who’s watching this, this bill actually addresses the lack of transparency in programing from the school board level. It gives an opportunity for parents to find out exactly where those resources are going and what they’re spent on.

The question to the member: Are you going to laugh at that transparency for your constituents or are you going to vote against this legislation that allows for that clarity?

I appreciate the question from my colleague the member for London North Centre. If this government really wanted to improve student outcomes, to ensure better schools in this province, they would consult with the education workers who are delivering the programs in our schools. I’m not confident that there’s a simple fix to this legislation that would deliver the outcomes that we want to see, because it all comes down to engaging with the people who are supporting students in our classrooms. It is reaching out to parents to really understand what it is that parents want to see in our school system, and it is using that information to move forward in a way that meets the needs of students in the province.

Thank you to the member for her presentation. I recognize her having been a trustee. I know she’s also been a part of OPSBA.

I’m going to read this. We’ve done three years of consultation with trustees where they had a survey and they voted on a standardized code of conduct, and I’m just going to read this piece. It says, “The minister should establish a minimum code of conduct for trustees, in consultation with trustees or their representative associations.” This was a quote from the member. That is exactly what we are doing. Does the member disagree with her own recommendation?

Speaker, as a strong believer both in parliamentary democracy and public education, I’m pleased to join today’s debate and provide my full support for both the Minister of Education and his game-changing legislation, the Better Schools and Student Outcomes Act.

Speaker, whenever I speak with constituents and parents in my riding, education is almost always top of mind. In my social media group, I have over 100 parents’ groups. Families in Markham–Unionville have made it clear to me a number of times that they strongly support Ontario’s public education system, but they believe that the education system needs to be understandable and navigable for all parents, and it needs to be focused on the fundamentals—reading, writing and math—which, of course, includes financial literacy.

To quote the report issued by the 1994 Royal Commission on Learning that was established by the then-NDP Premier Bob Rae, “Helping children master basic reading and writing skills is a critical first step, and every teacher of young children must be proficient at it.”

Speaker, I’m very optimistic about the future. We are building up Ontario. We are building up Ontario’s auto industry for the future of electric vehicles and EV battery production, encouraging the growth of a strong and resilient life sciences sector and attracting billion-dollar investments by manufacturers who know that our province is open for business. In short, Speaker, we are building a modern and advanced economy right here in Ontario.

But, Speaker, if we want to grow these sectors and if we want to attract billion-dollar investments to our province, Ontario must have a well-educated and highly skilled workforce. And at a time when Ontario is facing the largest skilled labour shortage in a generation and more than 40% of jobs in Canada are at high risk of getting disrupted by technology and computers, it is critically important that we prepare the students of today for the jobs of tomorrow.

When our government took office five years ago, we knew we had to update the curriculum to better help our students meet the needs of the modern labour market. More specifically, that means: making financial literacy and digital proficiency key priorities; investing $200 million to support a four-year math strategy; teaching valuable transferable skills such as leadership, communication, collaboration and critical thinking; promoting the skilled trades as a top-choice career path for young people; and increasing awareness of and accessibility to apprenticeship programs.

Last week, I had a very interesting experience. My water pipe in my laundry room leaked, and I called for a plumber. He came, he got it fixed, and he charged me $280 for two hours plus materials. I talked to him: “Man, if you work five days a week, 52 weeks a year, you’ve got more than $70,000 a year for one job per day.” Then I said, “Do you know what? If you get three jobs a day, you earn more than our Premier.” He smiled at me and said, “Do you know what? I got six jobs today.” This is how we want our young children to have a better job for the future and a career—also, improving science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, learning.

The good news, Speaker, is that our government has implemented many updates to the curriculum, and we are getting the job done across the province. The bad news is that approximately 15,000 Ontario students do not graduate high school within five years, and non-graduates have higher rates of unemployment and lower-than-average incomes.

As Ontario’s economy increasingly becomes a digital and global economy, we can’t afford to leave our young people behind. We need to take concrete and effective action, now. As you know, Speaker, our government recently announced that we are investing more than $180 million in classroom supports for students to boost their reading, writing and math skills. Reading and writing proficiency is critical to lifelong success. If a plumber cannot read the manual, how can he repair or install anything?

This is why we are delivering a $109.1-million investment for 2023-24 to help more students build stronger reading skills. This includes supporting nearly 700 reading-focused educators in classrooms who can help work one-on-one or in small groups to help students who need additional support in literacy; new tools and approaches in the curriculum, ensuring early readers experiencing challenges get the support they need; introducing new early reading screening for students in senior kindergarten to grade 2, to ensure they receive the necessary fundamental skills and early intervention in reading they require.

We are also building upon our four-year, $200-million math strategy by investing an additional $71.8 million in math recovery that will support nearly 400 new math-focused educators in the classroom, double the number of school math coaches in classrooms to provide direct support to teachers and students, introduce one math lead per board to lead curriculum implementation and support math culture in classrooms, provide subsidies for additional math qualification courses and professional learning for new teachers, and expand access to digital math tools and continue virtual tutoring services to provide additional support for students.

Speaker, these new initiatives to support students further demonstrate that Ontario’s government is working for families. But, Speaker, it is clear that if we want to truly reform the education system to prepare our young people for the jobs of tomorrow, we need legislative action. In the event that our legislation is passed, the Better Schools and Student Outcomes Act will allow the minister to establish new key priorities to ensure students have the skills and knowledge they need, especially in areas such as reading, writing and math.

Speaker, I would love to walk my honourable colleagues through every section of this legislation, but my time is limited, and this bill is quite comprehensive. So instead, please allow me to focus on the fifth pillar, which is all about providing consistent information and approaches to student learning.

The current system simply isn’t meeting the needs of students in terms of learning the basics of reading and math or adequately preparing them for the labour market. Parents feel as though they are kept on the outskirts of their children’s education, and they aren’t sure how they can help to improve the system for their children. Well, Speaker, our government believes that parents should be in the driver’s seat when it comes to their children’s education, and the Better Schools and Student Outcomes Act will enshrine parental rights, should it pass. This would include requiring all school boards to provide and promote parent-friendly information as outlined by the minister. Parents would be provided with frequently updated provincial information for parents that will spell out their rights, roles and responsibilities within the education system.

Our legislation will support consistency in the delivery of mental health education and services, and promote inclusive language on special education in French versions of the Education Act and the Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2001.

And, Speaker, the Better Schools and Student Outcomes Act will help the minister work for families by establishing formal guidelines for a transparent and predictable curriculum review process that ensures the curriculum is reviewed on a regular basis and that it reflects future labour market needs. We are now using iPhone 14. The previous updated curriculum was 2009, which was iPhone 1—never updated in the last 14 versions of iPhones. We need to update regularly.

We are already taking action to support standardized and consistent student learning by investing in mental health and math supports and implementing literacy screening. As I mentioned earlier, Speaker, the Minister of Education has already taken many actions to update the curriculum to include more math and science, and focus on financial and digital literacy.

The Better Schools and Student Outcomes Act will build on these actions, Speaker, but I am especially excited about the proposed handbook for parents. All too often, parents feel helpless when they encounter a big government bureaucracy that they feel does not reflect their views and does not listen to their concerns. That is especially the case when I speak with new Canadians whose first language is not English. Many of these folks worry they may get into trouble if they express any dissatisfaction with the education their children are receiving, and that is only if they are listened to.

We are fortunate to live in a free society, Speaker. And in this free society, this government will always side with parents, giving them a voice. Clearly laid out information for parents is an excellent idea that deserves our full support.

Speaker, I hope that all of our honourable colleagues on both sides of this House support our government’s legislation.

Question: Do you see anything in the bill that’s really going to support students with special needs? Because I’m very concerned. I see a lot of blame being cast on boards, who have to work with the budget they’re given. They don’t have a choice about that. So I’m very concerned that students with special needs are going to be left without the supports they need.

I’d like to thank the member from London West for enlightening us on quite a bit that is not in this bill and what was not addressed in this piece of legislation.

Last month in this House, I mentioned and brought to this House—advocacy group People for Education released its annual survey from 1,000 schools. It showed 91% of principals said more support for mental health for students and well-being is needed. Is this addressed in this at all? Some 900 children in Niagara are looking for mental health supports.

Further questions?