It’s a pleasure and an honour to stand in this House on behalf of hard-working Brampton Centre families and offer strong support for both the Minister of Education and our government’s necessary and comprehensive legislation, the Better Schools and Student Outcomes Act.

Speaker, I’m addressing this chamber as the elected member for Brampton Centre, as a graduate of the Peel District School Board, as a mother of five children currently or previously enrolled in the public school system, and as the Associate Minister of Women’s Social and Economic Opportunity. That said, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Minister of Education, not just for updating the curriculum and taking action to ensure schools are safe and welcoming learning environments for all students, but for advancing the cause of women’s education in Ontario.

As my colleagues are well aware, our province is facing a very real shortage of skilled trades labour. In just a few years, it’s estimated that one in five jobs in Ontario will be in the skilled trades, yet the average age of people entering the trades is 29. Unfortunately, there is still a stigma attached to careers in the trades, especially among young women.

Women make up 47% to 48% of the Canadian labour force but hold fewer than 4% of jobs in the skilled trades and less than one quarter of jobs in the tech sector. Clearly, we are missing out on a talented demographic that could impact our province’s long-term future. So I applaud the Minister of Education for encouraging young women to take a good look at lucrative and rewarding careers in the skilled trades.

I also applaud him for signing an agreement with Shoppers Drug Mart to distribute free menstrual products to schools in all 72 boards. That’s a perfect example of taking action to make sure our schools are more welcoming and inclusive learning centres.

As I mentioned a moment ago, our province is experiencing a profound shortage of skilled labour, so it is critically important that we update the curriculum to ensure it aligns with the ever-changing needs of the job market.

On many occasions, Brampton families have said to me that the education system really needs to get back to basics. Parents in the riding I’m proud to represent support the minister’s focus on more math, more science, more financial literacy, and greater exposure to the skill trades, but they believe much more needs to be done and that school boards are not accountable to families. We recently saw that in my own community for years, students and parents voiced their concerns about widespread anti-Black racism, discrimination and inequities that were preventing hundreds of Black students from graduating on time. But they were systematically ignored by the Peel District School Board, forcing the province to step in and take action.

Speaker, Ontario’s $27-billion education system is overseen by about 700 trustees who do not always possess a consistent set of skills, training, or a standard code of conduct. The majority of school trustees are diligent and caring public servants, but this system of local governance is badly in need of reform.

If I may, I’ll quote the 1994 Royal Commission on Learning that was created by then-Premier Bob Rae and chaired by former Liberal cabinet minister Monique Bégin and long-time New Democrat Gerald Caplan: “Trustees are elected by a tiny proportion of the electorate, if indeed they don’t win by acclamation. It might be embarrassing to discover how many constituents know their trustees’ names. Board agendas too often reflect matters that are light years away from what happens in their schools; anyone who has sat in on a meeting of a school board knows that it can be a truly surrealistic experience.”

That royal commission outlined a number of deep-seated problems in education that have been with us for a very long time.

It’s clear that if we want to truly reform the education system to prepare our young people for the jobs of tomorrow, we need to take legislative action.

Speaker, in the event that our legislation is passed, the Better Schools and Student Outcomes Act will increase accountability, giving parents new tools to navigate and understand the education system and establish basic qualifications for the directors of education who manage school boards.

The Better Schools and Student Outcomes Act will also allow the minister to establish key priorities to ensure students have the skills and knowledge they need, especially in areas such as reading, writing and math.

Many of my colleagues are incredibly happy and proud that this act is going to mandate a handbook for parents that would outline their rights and responsibilities within the education system. Just imagine: If you didn’t go through the Ontario public education system, or if you moved to Ontario from elsewhere in search of a better life for your family, you would not have the experience of how best to navigate this system for your children. That is why a handbook is such a game-changer. One of the best ways to hold school boards accountable to families and taxpayers is to remind or even in some cases inform parents that they have rights when they deal with their local board. A handbook for parents is a great idea that is long overdue for our province.

But the act goes further than mandating a handbook.

Our legislation will ensure that trustees have the knowledge and the skills they need to perform their duties, and that their conduct is held to provincial standards. The act would amend the Education Act to require mandatory training for trustees, as prescribed by the Minister of Education. It would create a standardized trustee code of conduct that would be binding on all trustees and set clear expectations for how trustees should discharge their duties.

Speaker, the media has at times publicized some high-profile disputes between trustees—and we did see that in Brampton a couple of years ago. Such disputes are costly, time-consuming, and they erode the public confidence and detract attention from a school board’s primary duty, which is to promote student achievement.

Our legislation would establish a transparent and impartial process for resolving trustee code of conduct complaints through integrity commissioners who would be empowered to conduct investigations, dismiss complaints made in bad faith, determine whether or not the code of conduct has been breached, and impose binding sanctions on trustees.

I’m pleased to add that the Better Schools and Student Outcomes Act also includes several other accountability and transparency measures for school boards. The act would enable the minister to require school boards, twice a year, to report publicly on their spending. It would strengthen the minister’s authority to direct and/or prohibit board participation in activities that could place the board at financial risk. It would allow for the appointment of professional corporations to investigate a board’s financial affairs when it is in distress. And it would establish the minister’s authority to prescribe financial policy and accountability matters for board-controlled entities.

Speaker, these reforms are very much in line with the royal commission’s recommendations from nearly three decades ago. To again quote the report, it said, “We recommend the transfer of several key responsibilities away from boards. We believe that determining the level of each board’s expenditures, for example, should be the ministry’s job....

“The primary responsibility of school boards would be to translate general ministry guidelines into viable local practice. Their job is to make local policy consistent with both provincial policy and local realities. They set clear expectations and guidelines for their schools and work with them to make sure they’re progressing towards those ends.”

That’s what the royal commission said nearly three decades ago.

Speaker, the Better Schools and Student Outcomes Act is thoughtful, comprehensive and incredibly sensible legislation that will help our kids prepare for the jobs of the future and empower parents, and make Ontario’s 72 school boards more accountable to families and taxpayers. That is why I, as a mother of five, am proud to rise in support of this bill.

I would like to share my time with the member from Carleton.

I appreciate the question from the member opposite.

Does the curriculum need to change? Absolutely. I represent many First Nations, and they have shared their stories with me. They have shared their stories with the people of Nickel Belt about what the real story of Ontario is, through the eyes of Indigenous people. We had a working group that was going to make recommendations so that every child in Ontario knows the story of what happened to Indigenous people in Ontario, but this government stopped this working group and never implemented the Indigenous curriculum that has needed change in our province for a long time. Yes, the curriculum needs to change and make sure people know about Aboriginal—

We all need different supports to make sure that we attain our full potential. For some students, that will mean that they need one-on-one support. For other students, that will mean that they need a quiet place to be able to write their exams.

We have the knowledge and the skills to do an assessment of every child to meet their differences and put a plan in place for them to thrive, for them to achieve their best potential, but when there are no resources on the front lines to be able to have an educational assistant to support that child, to have an ECE to support that child, then it is all for none. We can do the assessment, we can put a plan together that will allow them, but there is nothing in that bill that will guarantee that the specialized needs of disabled children will be met in schools. This is shameful.

When I hear some of my colleagues talk about discrimination against the trades—where we come from, where I come from, trades have always been something that people look positively towards.

I can tell you that my youngest daughter is an electrician. She went and did a trade. She has a good job working for Vale, has all sorts of opportunities, has good benefits, and belongs to a strong union. Those are all things that are built from our education system.

Yes, STEM is important, and it is available in Nickel Belt.

The 2022-23 school year is coming to an end in a couple of months, and they are working on it.

It is clear that drivers need a pay increase. The operators in my region are getting between a 0% and 2% increase per year. The price of gas and diesel has gone up about 100%, but they’re getting a 2% increase.

Treat bus drivers and the entire school bus system as an integral part of our education system. In Nickel Belt and in many parts of Ontario, kids cannot go to school if there isn’t a school bus. We need school bus drivers in order for that to happen. Let’s respect them.

Since we’re talking about acting for all children, all students, all citizens, let us remember that the workforce is constantly changing and our education system needs to adapt in response. It’s 2023, and our curriculum should reflect this, particularly in math, science, literacy, and civics.

If left with a Liberal government, aided and abetted by the NDP, our curriculum would be left just as outdated as those parties are.

To the member opposite: Does the opposition really believe that curriculum should stay stagnant and become irrelevant, or should it change with the times? What does the member opposite say about that?

On behalf of hard-working Ottawa families, it’s a pleasure for me to stand up and provide my strong support for the Better Schools and Student Outcomes Act.

There’s no question that the world is changing, and we had better change with it, or we risk getting left behind.

The Minister of Education has been doing an admirable job of modernizing Ontario’s curriculum, to ensure that it prepares our young people for the world of tomorrow. This has meant focusing on STEM learning and math, including financial literacy and digital fluency, and encouraging kids to take a good look at rewarding careers in the skilled trades.

It’s an honour for me to represent the people of Carleton, and I take every opportunity I can to listen to the concerns of hard-working families. My constituents are respectful and polite, but they’re also pretty firm about wanting value for money. Families in Ottawa understand the critical role that public education plays, and they nearly always like their children’s teachers, but they also see their school board as a big and impersonal bureaucracy and believe the education system must do a much better job of preparing young people for the workforce.

The Better Schools and Student Outcomes Act will, if passed, provide parents and taxpayers with some long-overdue accountability, and it will assist the minister in making the education system more responsive to the changing needs of the job market.

Our legislation, if passed, will drive provincial priorities and expectations for Ontario’s education sector from the province through to Ontario’s classrooms to enhance accountability and transparency.

Our legislation will enable more effective governance through reforms for education sector boards of trustees and directors of education.

Our legislation will help to maximize the considerable real estate assets of school boards.

It will ensure Ontario’s teachers are trained for the needs of today’s and tomorrow’s classrooms.

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

Madam Speaker, there are certain parts of the legislation that are very, very important and are very critical, not just in Ottawa—but specifically in my riding of Carleton.

The fact that our legislation will enable school boards to maximize the considerable real estate assets of school boards make me think about Munster Elementary School, which was shut down years ago by the previous Liberal government, supported by the NDP. While it’s in perfect condition, Munster Elementary School has remained closed, and the school board has no intention of reopening it. In fact, the school board has tried to sell this asset several times—something that I have prevented, because it makes no sense for the school board to not utilize Munster Elementary School to its full potential.

This bill allows the school board to collaborate—whether it’s with other school boards, whether it’s with the municipality—to come up with some sort of solution that will allow parents in Munster to send their kids to a local school, but also give the option of making sure that the building is used to its maximum capacity. Whether it’s as a hybrid community centre or whether it’s dual school boards, the opportunities and the possibilities are endless, and this legislation provides that opportunity. This legislation provides that hope to the community of Munster, the people of Munster, that perhaps once again they can send their children back to Munster Elementary School, a local school. That’s why I’m proud to support this important piece of legislation, and I look forward to working with the parents and the community of Munster to come up with various solutions and work towards how we can get Munster Elementary School opened.

The bill that we’re discussing is quite wide-ranging and includes a number of much-needed reforms. I’m not going to list them in their entirety, but I will briefly mention a few that I’m especially excited about.

The big item is, of course, the provincial information for parents that will spell out their rights, roles and responsibilities within the educational system. This is very important, especially in the city of Ottawa, where in the past month there have been some contentious issues in the news with school board trustees, and parents have been left wondering what their rights are to get involved, what their rights are to ask questions. This legislation will ensure that parents will know what their rights, roles and responsibilities are within the education system.

As I mentioned earlier, many parents across the province view their local school board as a big and impersonal bureaucracy that does not feel a need to listen to the concerns of families. I experienced this myself when, last year, the parents in Findlay Creek who had their children attending Vimy Ridge Public School reached out to my office because they felt like they were getting nowhere with the school board and their trustee. When they were telling the school board and trustee that there were too many kids and that they needed to build a second public elementary school in Findlay Creek, the school board simply ignored them and kept on adding more and more portables until, finally, the school board said they’re going to start busing new students to other communities. Instead of accepting that they needed to build a second public elementary school, the school board just ignored the needs of parents.

The parents came to me, and we worked hard. We created a petition. I spoke with the Minister of Education—and that’s probably the fastest school I’ve ever managed to get funding for, to get built. When I heard about the issue, it was in October, and the day we received funding was, I believe, sometime in mid-April—so eight months.

I was very, very pleased to work with the parents and families of Findlay Creek to make sure that they got funding and that the school board prioritized building a second public elementary school in Findlay Creek. But they shouldn’t have gone through me; they should have been able to deal directly with the school board and their school board trustee. But you know that when parents are reaching out to their local MPP to get assistance on a school board matter, there’s an issue there with the system.

Our government understands that parental involvement is crucially important in a child’s education, and we believe in empowering parents, not in telling them to sit down. Providing each parent with information that outlines their rights and responsibilities will enhance parent-teacher conversations and encourage more parents to voice their opinions and get involved in their children’s education.

Madam Speaker, my colleagues on this side of the House strongly support this legislation, because it includes a number of measures to make school boards more accountable to families, and I agree with all of those measures.

I’m especially impressed by one amendment to the Ontario College of Teachers Act, 1996, that would allow student victims of alleged sexual abuse, child pornography or a criminal sexual act by any teacher to receive funding for therapy. At present, the provisions require there to be a direct relationship between the student and teacher, which is limiting for victims of abuse. I applaud the Minister of Education for including that measure in the bill.

When young people enter the public education system, they are in our care, and they deserve every protection we can afford them.

Clearly, the Better Schools and Student Outcomes Act is a thoughtful and comprehensive bill that will help protect young people, empower parents, and make school boards more accountable to parents and taxpayers. With this legislation, we are telling parents in Ontario, we are telling the communities of Munster, of Findlay Creek, Riverside South, Stittsville—all across my riding of Carleton, across the city of Ottawa, including Manotick, and across the province that our government is here, our government is listening.

Our government has always supported parents, and we will continue to support parents, because ultimately it is their children in the public education system, and it is our responsibility to make sure that children and families are supported.

Thank you to the member for her presentation.

I know that the riding of Carleton—similar to my own riding—has a wide variety of schools and school boards, mixed urban and rural. That represents all of what Ontario has.

We have a variety of school experiences. There are four unique, publicly funded school systems, 72 district school boards, over 3,900 elementary and 870 secondary schools.

In Toronto, there are schools with more than 2,000 students. In northern and rural Ontario, there are schools—including some in my own riding—that have less than 200 students. While each of these schools use the same curriculum, the learning experience is vastly different.

This proposed legislation includes one set of priorities for all school boards for all students. Can the member talk to us about how this will be beneficial for the boards and, more specifically, how it will be beneficial—

Thank you to my colleague for his comments on the Better Schools and Student Outcomes Act. He was referring to having the proper books and the proper curriculum for our students, and I couldn’t agree more, Speaker. I know our government is really taking a serious look at that in updating the curriculum. Under the previous Liberal government, unfortunately, they chose not to do that, and so when our government formed our first government in 2018, I know our Minister of Education made that a top priority.

And so we are now legislating this review of curriculum, implementing a mandatory curriculum review process: no fewer than three years, no matter who the government is, no matter who the minister is. Does the member opposite support that, and will they support this bill?