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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

Thank you for the question from the opposition side. It is very important that we need to carry on supporting the francophone communities in our education sectors. That’s why we are investing more in education. If we have the opportunity to read about our budget for this fiscal year, we may see that there is a $2.1-billion increase in investing in the public education sector. That is one of the reasons why we are supporting this bill: because we are investing more in education than ever.

This is very important to me, because we need to always understand our own jurisdiction. We don’t cross our border. We don’t step on other people’s toes. We help each other so that we can be a board that can help our students move forward. That’s why in this legislation, we need to provide more funding for school boards for trustee training so that they know what they should do and what they shouldn’t.

The Minister of Education also announced that we are investing more than $180 million for 2023-24 in math and reading support for Ontario students in our classrooms and at home. This is building upon our previous $200-million investment with support to students with our four-year math strategy. The numbers go on and on. I don’t know why you are not supporting this one, but this is very well-supported education—

I really enjoyed the member’s presentation this afternoon. One of the things in my region is we’re going to have a lot more jobs; we’re going to have a lot more families moving into that region. As such, we’re going to need to build more schools. We’re going to need more capacity. So my question to you would be, with this need to ensure that Ontario school boards are prepared for this growth now and in the future, how will this bill better prepare us to meet the demands for our students and of our families in the years ahead?

It is clear that since this government came into power, there is now $1,200 less money per student than there was when they took power in 2018. There are now four less teachers per 1,000 students in secondary school than when they took power in 2018. They are, through this bill, improving: one new teacher for 2,850 kids for help in reading and one new teacher for 6,650 kids in math.

You gave the example of your nephew, who needed more support in order to be successful. He was lucky enough that his parents were wealthy. What do you figure will happen to all of the kids like your nephew who need extra help?