Thank you, Speaker. I’m a little surprised that the member opposite doesn’t understand the connection between school violence and children’s capacity to learn reading, writing and literacy in our schools and what this might have to do with school boards. I am surprised, but—

After traumatic episodes of violence and lockdowns, students are just supposed to go back to the classroom, back to learning without any mental health support. Violence is on the rise in school, and the majority of principals and vice-principals within our school boards attribute this to a lack of staffing, support and resources.

The TDSB has a staffing crisis, and students, teachers, parents, and education workers are feeling the pinch. But because of this government’s unwillingness to reimburse them for the $70 million that they had to pay to protect kids during the pandemic, they will be forced to cut even more staff, including child and youth workers and safety monitors. This is only going to make matters worse for our kids.

Don’t our kids deserve to feel safe at school? Don’t they deserve mental health supports in school?

This violence is not just limited to the TDSB. Violent incidents are happening at crisis levels across the province.

In London-area schools, reports by the ETFO Thames Valley District School Board show that there are an average of 636 violent incidents a month. This doesn’t even account for the majority of violent incidents that go unreported. In some cases, kids are even being sent to the hospital with severe injuries.

These are not just incidents occurring among students. Teachers and education workers are met with violence daily.

The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario is looking into violence against teachers and in schools to see if it will help this government understand the gravity of the situation.

Karen Brown, ETFO’s president, said, “Many school spaces are not safe, especially for those working on the front lines with students whose needs are not being met. We hope the data collected will finally convince this government to take action to address the unacceptable and troubling rise of violence in schools.”

I heard the same thing from Ottawa OECTA teachers last week. The number of violent incidents are rising, but because there’s pressure on teachers not to even report violence, what we know is just a drop in the bucket.

Teachers and education workers have been calling on this government to hire more mental health support staff and provide anti-violence training for the teachers and staff already working in our schools. They’ve been asking this government to work with them. The solutions are there, but instead, the government provides us with legislation that does nothing to address this. Our kids cannot succeed in math and literacy if they do not feel safe in our schools.

In my riding of Ottawa West–Nepean, I’ve heard from several parents and teachers about how their kids don’t feel safe at Pinecrest Public School. The parents who have reached out did not feel comfortable sharing their names, but in speaking with them, it’s clear that these are not isolated incidents. Once again, this is rooted in the lack of mental health supports available to our kids. Pinecrest is a K-to-8 school and is just one of many public schools in Ottawa that has had to cancel classes as a result of being short-staffed. One of my constituents has a six-year-old grandson at Pinecrest. In two months, her grandson’s homeroom has had three different supply staff, resulting in no consistency and a continuous lack of support for him and his classmates. In February, the students’ parents received an email from their principal informing them that, because of absenteeism, their classes would be cancelled for at least two days. Imagine being in this situation, trying to scramble to see whether you can find child care for your kids or whether you may have to bring them to work with you the following day. This woman was lucky that she was in a position where she could look after her grandson for a few days while his classes were cancelled.

After continued disruption from the pandemic, this government’s underfunding is resulting in our kids being out of the classroom once again.

Our kids are in crowded classrooms, not getting the supports they need, with teacher and education worker shortages. They’re in a mental health crisis, but schools don’t have the resources to address it, and they’re not feeling safe at schools because of rising violence due to the mental health crisis and the shortage of workers. And what does the minister think is the appropriate response to this situation? A fire sale of school properties. Instead of investments in mental health supports and smaller class sizes, Bill 98 is giving the minister the power to compel school boards to sell school buildings and land to any individual the minister designates, at any price the minister designates. This is the same government whose cozy relationship with developers always somehow seems to cost the taxpayer money while resulting in sweetheart deals for developers—

Thank you, Speaker.

Surely, if the sole desire here was to make sure that every child can attend school in their local community regardless of what board they’re in, the regulations on selling or transferring schools could just be limited to school boards.

What we actually need more than the sell-off of publicly held land to private, for-profit corporations is investments to address the repair backlog so that our children can learn in a safe environment. The school repair backlog is currently well over $16 billion; we don’t know by how much because the government stopped publicly reporting on this figure. But we know that committing only $1.4 billion a year to building new schools and repairing existing schools means that the backlog is going to continue to grow instead of shrink.

Our kids are trying to learn in schools that are not in good repair, including schools that are not fully air-conditioned. When the temperatures hit 30 degrees in Ottawa last week, one of the first things I thought of was the poor teachers and students on the second floor of my children’s un-air-conditioned school. Usually it’s not until late May or early June that the temperatures get that high. I’ve sent my kids to school in the past thinking, “Well, they’re not going to learn anything today. They’re going to be lucky to survive.” Teachers have had to employ creative strategies, including bringing Popsicles to school that they’ve paid for out of their own pockets, and cycling kids through the gym and the learning commons, which have air conditioning. These are our children’s learning conditions.

The government has said over and over again that this legislation is based on what they have been hearing from parents, but I don’t buy it. I have had countless emails come through my inbox since even just the start of this year from parents voicing their concerns with the direction that public education is going. When boards were raising issues about reimbursing COVID relief funds, the emails were pouring in. When the budget was tabled with no real inflationary increases for education included, the emails were pouring in. Since Sunday, the emails have been pouring in again.

Parents who are scared about what this legislation will mean, educators concerned with the Grants for Student Needs numbers all want to know who exactly has been consulted in the creation of this bill—who are the stakeholders that were involved? We know that it wasn’t any of the teachers and education unions, because they were very clear that they were caught completely off guard by this legislation. That’s incredibly insulting when the ministry is in bargaining with these teachers. That’s not how you build a respectful relationship.

Cara Kane, a parent in my riding of Ottawa West–Nepean, sent me an email yesterday with her concerns about this bill and whose interests it represents. She said, “Firstly, it is quite bothersome to state that this is in response to what parents want ... how does he know what we want? What is he basing this off of? There has been no public consultation whatsoever with parents on this proposed bill. I want my child to go through this world as a kind person, who respects equity and diversity, who advocates for the community and stands up to bigotry, who explores her passions in a supportive environment, whatever they may be—whether it’s math and science, or art and literature, or anything in between. I fear this bill is woefully out of touch with what parents actually want for our children, and there is absolutely no way for the minister to know this without actually engaging in a public consultation process that include the voices of all parents. I am also deeply concerned about the bill’s new powers, which would require boards of education to report to the minister on these outcomes and provide the minister with the power to dissolve boards and appoint a provincial supervisor in the place of trustees. Communities vote for trustees—having a provincially appointed supervisor who has no relationship to/with the community, no understanding of what the school and community needs or values, and is not elected is insulting at best, and dangerous at worst.”

What we needed to see from the minister this week was a significant investment in our schools, one that actually accounted for inflation and for all of the massive challenges that our children are dealing with—a plan that actually provided for smaller class sizes; a plan that actually put more teachers and education workers in every school so that every child could get the supports they need from caring adults in their classroom; un plan pour résoudre la pénurie d’enseignants et d’enseignantes dans le système d’éducation de langue française; a plan that made significant investments in mental health, so that every school in Ontario would have access to at least one regularly scheduled mental health professional; a plan that actually tackled the root causes of violence by providing mental health supports and increasing staffing levels; a plan that made sure that all of our children are in safe and supported learning environments by clearing the repair backlog; a plan that provided critical supports for our most vulnerable learners—students with disabilities and accessibility needs; a plan that adequately funds special education; a transition plan for the autism legacy kids; a plan that makes significant investments and provides transparency and accountability to our provincial and demonstration schools.

Instead of that, what we have is a communications exercise that seems largely designed to deflect blame. And what is frustrating is that once again it is our children who pay the price for this minister’s intransigence and this government’s underfunding, just as they have paid the price throughout the past three years.

It is time for the minister to finally accept some responsibility, to finally make the investments that our children so desperately need, and to finally come up with a plan that actually provides our children—every child in Ontario—with the supports that they need to thrive and flourish.

I’d like to give a very warm welcome to the Girls’ Government group from Parkdale–High Park. We have, from Annette Street public school and High Park alternative school: students Olivia Walli, Ryo Kumar, Amelia Wallis, Maya Jordan, Vesper Johnson, Jo Connors-Robertson, Soleece McBrien; teachers Kelly Iggers and Christine Rowe Quinn; parent Jeanhy Shim; and from Humbercrest Public School: students Kayden Rankin-Goodman, Maya Witty, Clara Winders-d’Eon, Ella Kemper, Nesiah Craig-Williams, Evelyn Dinis, Ava Macklin; and teacher Jessica Bailey.

Welcome, and thank you for being here.

Thank you to the member from Eglinton–Lawrence for this important question.

Our government recognizes that in order to build up our health care system, we need to ensure that students pursuing medical studies have access to world-class post-secondary education. As part of that effort, we need to ensure that we have the capacity to train doctors locally—and this government is delivering. In 2022 alone, we added 160 undergraduate spaces and 295 postgraduate medical seats to be implemented over the next five years—the largest expansion of Ontario’s medical school system in over a decade. As outlined in budget 2023, we are building on that expansion by investing $33 million over three years to add another 100 undergraduate seats and 154 postgraduate seats, beginning in 2024, prioritizing Ontario students. This means that by 2028, Ontario will have the capacity to train 1,212 undergraduate medical students and 1,637 postgraduate students annually.

I can assure you that the future of medical education in Ontario is bright.

I see that the students are actually finally here today. I hope everyone will join me in welcoming the wonderful students from St. Agatha Catholic School, with trustee Nancy Crawford and their teachers Shannon Murphy, Deirdre Moloney-Sciberras, Hyacinth Fernandes, Kathleen Dillon, and Theresa Moulds. Welcome to the House.

I have a petition, and it reads as follows:

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas parents have asked the Ministry of Education to find a way to refocus and get students back to the basics; and

“Whereas there is a recognition that there is a need for additional qualified and dedicated educators in Ontario; and

“Whereas, if passed, the Better Schools and Student Outcomes Act will streamline certification timelines for those with in-demand expertise who have valuable skills to teach our students; and

“Whereas with a rapidly evolving economy, Ontario’s curriculum must be consistently updated to ensure relevant and modern information for students to access good-paying jobs; and

“Whereas students and parents deserve a world-class education system built, on strategic investments and initiatives, that will deliver the highest impact on student success, greater involvement and transparency for parents and respect for Ontario taxpayers;

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

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

Speaker, I support this petition. I will affix my name it to and send it to the table with page Frederick.

I’d like to thank Liz for her work on this petition. It’s greatly appreciated.

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas parents expect that school board trustees and staff be qualified, accountable and focused on putting forward a plan to boost student achievement; and

“Whereas Ontario’s education system should offer the full accountability, transparency and responsiveness expected by families to prepare students for the jobs of tomorrow; and

“Whereas currently, Ontario’s 72 school boards set their own priorities, creating inconsistencies in student outcomes across the education system; and

“Whereas training for school board officials, including trustees and directors of education, to ensure they are unified in their respective roles to help students build skills they need to succeed; and

“Whereas a trustee dispute mechanism should be put in place, saving precious time and countless taxpayer dollars by building a provincially appointed roster of qualified integrity commissioners to quickly and effectively adjudicate the disputes;

“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 agree with this petition, will sign my name to it and give it to page Senna to take to the table.

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.

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.

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’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?

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’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 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?

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 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?

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?

My question is to the member for Thornhill. I enjoyed her presentation.

When you were talking about your son, it really was resonant to me, because this is what I’ve heard from Dr. Kaplan-Myrth and many families back home. I just want you to know that a positive thing the government has done in mandating Holocaust education is that my daughter and I, when we caught up last night, took in a very powerful session with a 98-year-old Holocaust survivor that we’ve seen in many schools in our community. That is a very, very positive thing.

What I’d like the member to comment on, in addition to that development: What is your vision, for your community and others, to make sure that this education is done in a rooted way that is consulted with the organizations we need to consult with, so students can tackle anti-Semitism?

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?