My question is to the Premier. This Premier and Minister of Infrastructure are painting the Ontario Science Centre as a teardown, but it isn’t. They’ve seen record attendance. I encourage folks and families to visit them and explore and enjoy their brilliant exhibits.

What is true is that capital repairs and building renewal are years behind. And, fun fact: According to the Ontario Science Centre’s 2022-23 business plan, Infrastructure Ontario is technically the science centre’s landlord. The minister says the science centre is falling apart. However, the business plans say nothing of the sort. What the Ontario Science Centre needs is for the government to cough up the needed funds and make the repairs.

My question to this minister is, will she keep withholding the funding needed or pay up?

Interjection.

The minister no doubt realizes that being a better landlord and doing the necessary repairs would be far less costly than building a whole new science centre. Unless the minister is planning to shrink the science centre, the minister knows she can’t rebuild a new one for less than the cost of repairs and knows that there isn’t money in the budget for this.

So my question is, what is the Premier’s actual plan for the Ontario Science Centre and what is it going to cost Ontario?

I am pleased to be able to stand here on behalf of my community of Oshawa and on behalf of the NDP to debate this piece of legislation, Bill 102, which is entitled Strengthening Safety and Modernizing Justice Act.

Disappointingly, I haven’t had the time I would like to delve into this and connect with community because, as happens with this government, this was tabled only yesterday and here we find ourselves how many hours later debating. Speaker, I will do my best to draw from the conversations and the information I have gathered through the years, and I’m going to be going back to some oldies but goodies when it comes to reports and sharing what I can.

But I will say to the folks at home, and I will say to the community groups and people interested in this bill and in community safety generally, that they can always go onto the Ontario Legislature website, that they can look at this particular bill and sign up to be notified when and if it goes to committee so that they can be notified and bring voice.

Now, this is a really quick process. We’re debating it this afternoon, all through the night, probably, and then it’s likely to pass tomorrow. So it’s quick and dirty and really fast, and it’s disappointing, because I think when it comes to the safety and justice that people are desperate for across communities, it warrants a longer runway and it warrants a longer and more involved conversation, certainly accountability and transparency. And a couple of minutes to read the bill isn’t too much to ask, but here we are.

Speaker, I have had the opportunity in the almost nine years that I have been doing this job to serve as the opposition NDP critic on various files. At one point I had the opportunity to serve as the critic for community safety and correctional services. I was in over my head from day one and loved it. I loved the work that I did in that portfolio. I took it upon myself to be a thorn in the side, frankly, of maybe the corrections ministry. I would just show up at the various jails and probation and parole offices. It was 17 of the jails in the province of Ontario that I knocked on the door of and said, “Hi, I’m here.” They said, “Come back another day.” And I said, “No, I don’t have to,” and I didn’t. I got the tour that ministers historically had not gotten, because when they know that ministers are coming, they would like to roll out the red carpet and paint the walls and transfer some inmates and maybe change things.

I will say that I have appreciated that the Solicitor General has actually raised that issue and discussed that in this House, about showing up and putting eyes on these spaces, maybe without the parade, and I think that’s the way to see it. The way to see it is to actually listen to the front lines, learn from them, see it for ourselves. I would encourage all members: You have the right to just show up at the jail, preferably the front door—

Interjections.

Well, yes, that’s a different headline.

I would say to call the local union ahead of time. Call that local union, talk to the health and safety folks, know what you’re going to see and go and learn.

So I’m drawing from various personal experiences. I also was very fortunate growing up. Two of my uncles are now retired police officers and have worked in northern and remote areas in various provinces. One of them was very involved in the Torch Run and connecting police with community. I am glad to have learned a bit from them by osmosis. But also, I grew up in a community that was maybe not typical for many folks in Ontario. I grew up in different places, with my dad’s job. I’m not from Oshawa—but I got there as soon as I could—but small-town Ontario, where it was local police that did bike safety things on the weekend, and that was something that I remember doing. Those are good examples of community policing. I was a little girl who grew up and thought if I got in trouble, I would go to the police.

There are a lot of people in this province who do not feel that way. We as a province and we as lawmakers in this room have a lot of work to do, as we’ve talked about, in how people see the police, how the police interact, the tools that they have or that they don’t have and, I will say, the tools and resources that the police have been asking for, for a long time. Since I was first elected until now, we’ve heard from police about the need for specific training as they are recognizing the need themselves.

I remember talking to—it was actually an interim chief in Durham. We were talking about homelessness. We were talking about the challenges faced by folks in our community, and I remember that—and this is not a direct quote, but the spirit of what he said was: As a lot of people are concerned and complaining about the homeless population that are visible, the interim chief had said that we can move them, like we can have them push their shopping cart down the road, but we cannot house them. We cannot give them what they need. And what they were doing—and now this is me—what the folks are doing in downtown Oshawa that are washing their clothes in the fountain, they’re trying to get by. They don’t have a place to live, right? For the people who are constantly interacting with other law enforcement or community agencies, who are struggling maybe with addictions, often with mental health, often with a combination of both, they don’t have a hope in heck if we don’t care about them. If these are underserved folks, we as a province and you as a government need to be investing in the services that people are clamouring for—transitional housing, affordable housing, just the very basics. We’re talking about food bank use increasing. These are people who have needs, but there’s a lot of desperation that goes with that.

What I was starting to say about having served as the critic for community safety and correctional services, as it was named at the time, it was both my responsibility and my privilege to get to know the local police officers, the local police associations, the provincial police association and to have an understanding. Not everybody gets to hear the ugly side of day in and day out. I want to stand here and make it very clear that I respect and appreciate the work done by uniformed officers, by civilian officers, by those folks who work in policing, whether it’s in the nitty-gritty—I’m going to say—nerdy side of the science and forensics who are doing really neat stuff that maybe we see on TV, or the folks who are going into those hotels and are a kind face in Durham region. We have a coalition which I’ll talk about later supporting those who are victims of human trafficking. The police go in as part of a coalition, and they are working directly with people being trafficked. For those who are getting in the car or walking the beat, we’ve got a lot of struggle in Oshawa as many of our communities do, and I want to thank them for their service and I want to thank them for the work that they do.

Some of what I have heard not too long ago when I have met, as we all do, with our local police associations and with officers, there are a lot of staffing problems. I don’t think anyone in this room doesn’t understand that. There are retention problems. There are a lot of officers that are struggling with PTSD. There are a lot of folks who are not getting what they need to return to work, perhaps in a different role, that were needing a more robust plan with earlier interventions.

When it comes to the officers actually out in the community, they’re getting stuck sometimes in hospitals. That ambulance off-load challenge that we all talk about, we know that we run out of ambulances because there isn’t the staffing, there isn’t the space, there isn’t the support that we need in the hospitals. Well, the police officers are finding the same thing. When they are going to a hospital with someone in their care or with them that they have to stay with until that person has been received or admitted at the hospital, until they can leave, they have to sit there, and it can be hours. That is taking officers off the road, and it’s also a struggle for that individual often dealing with mental health to be sitting in that hallway in public basically, right?

There are better ways of doing things. If the government were really looking at strategies to deal with the mess in hospitals, that’s also a piece of this. I hope that the government is listening to the experience of the front-line officers and pulling out some other pieces and how it connects more broadly, like I said, with health care in that regard.

Something else that we had heard from police in our community—staffing problems in the 911 centre. These are folks that are behind the scenes literally answering the phone when we call in an emergency. It is traumatizing. I have heard that they drive to work and sit in the parking lot and cry because the weight of going into work is too much.

When folks are struggling in all nooks and crannies of law enforcement, how are we supporting them? What is it that that support looks like? We’ve got a lot of the—I’m going to say veterans—experienced police, who have learned a lot along the way, who have seen a lot, more than I can possibly imagine, and they are leaving. They’re taking commuted value and they’re leaving.

So we do recognize that we’ve got to have strategies for recruiting and retaining, but while we recognize that as a priority, we also have to have a really good plan for what that looks like to ensure that the officers coming in have what they need to be successful and have what they need so that the other officers that they’re working with are able to work with them and everyone is safe.

I went back in time because, like I said, this bill just dropped yesterday and, surprise, we’re debating it today and tonight and done tomorrow—quick as they can get it done, let’s get ’er done. I went back to some older reports; like I said, an oldie but a goodie. This is from Police Encounters with People in Crisis. It was a 2014 report, a Judge Iacobucci report recommendation. This was to the Toronto Police Service. I’m going to read just a few of them because when we’re talking about staffing and the recruiting of officers, we’re talking about what police forces need and can look like.

One of the recommendations, recommendation number 7, selection of police officers—this was about recruit attributes. The recommendation is that “the TPS,” the Toronto Police Service, “give preference or significant weight to applicants who have:

“(a) Community service: engaged in significant community service, to demonstrate community-mindedness and the adoption of a community service mentality. Community service with exposure to people in crisis should be valued;

“(b) Mental health involvement: past involvement related to the mental health community, be it direct personal experience with a family member, work in a hospital, community service or other contributions; and

“(c) Higher education: completed a post-secondary university degree or substantially equivalent education.”

At the time, the TPS said that they concur, that they will “continue to actively recruit the best available applicants who have community service, mental health involvement and higher education. Typically, 80% of recruits hired by the service hold post-secondary school education credentials.”

They go on to talk about “specific educational programs that teach skills which enable a compassionate response to people in crisis, such as nursing, social work and programs related to mental illness.” This is what they were recommending in terms of recruiting and selecting police officers.

Also, it says, “Recommendation” that “TPS direct its employment unit to hire classes of new constables that, on the whole, demonstrate diversity of educational background, specialization, skills and life experience, in addition to other metrics of diversity.”

It was interesting actually, Speaker, to look at the Toronto Police Service and their comments on these recommendations. I wanted both sides of it, and they concur. Interestingly, at this time—this is 2014 so, yes, it goes back a bit, and they said:

“Of the 226 recruits hired in 2014, 86.7% have a post-secondary school education, 55.3% speak a language other than English, and 28.8% speak two or more languages other than English. In the January 2015 graduation class, three members held doctorates, one in the field of health science.

“Selection processes now probe for those characteristics through documentation, credentials, references and interviews.”

It’s been an interesting read to look at the recommendations from various reports. I think we know that they all are sort of saying the same thing, that it matters; when a police officer is interfacing with an unknown situation, when they are interfacing with someone struggling with mental health needs, that you want officers to have the training, life experiences they had pointed out, diversity of background and relatability—all of those things are optimal. So if we’re moving towards not having that, I would really encourage this government to make sure that they are investing in training that stays in this area, that looks at mental health training for officers.

But, also, a big part of the recommendations in this report but in others—and again, this was from Police Encounters with People in Crisis. A lot of the recommendations are about supporting the police and their mental health. An officer who responds to four baby deaths in a career—what does that do to someone? And if we are not supporting those officers or if the psychological pieces don’t fit anymore, and that officer is expected to just keep going, and there isn’t that layered support, early intervention all the way along, a check-in, if they are able to be brought back to serve—because that’s a big part of identity for anyone who puts on a uniform. There’s an identity piece there. Is an officer going to—I’m going to be flippant here—put up their hand and say, “I’m not okay,” when it risks their uniform, when it means that they can’t be a police officer anymore? I don’t know.

So working with police and figuring out what it looks like for that officer, who says, “I need support. I need help. I’m not okay, and I am not safe to go out into the community in the state that I’m in”—or, excuse me, to have someone else assess that. Is there a place for them in policing, and what could that look like? These are things that we hear from the front lines, we hear from police. Nobody in the community wants an officer who is unwell to show up at an emergency.

Speaker, I am going to take a moment in this last second to say that I have here the Durham region’s human trafficking model. I’ve shared this almost entirely in this House before. I’m on the record about human trafficking, and I’m very pleased that I participated in a ride-along with members from the human trafficking coalition as well as the human trafficking division, the officers in Durham region. It’s really a remarkable strategy that they’re implementing. It really is a remarkable set-up in terms of that collaborative approach.

I went on a ride-along with the officers. I got to see behind the ugly, ugly, ugly scenes of human trafficking, to some extent. I got to go into a situation with a worker from a women’s shelter who works together with police. I got to go in with Karly Church, who is just a tremendous resource in this province. She’s a human trafficking crisis intervention counsellor. I think she is, if not the first, one of the originals to really have a huge impact. And we—it was together with the police, but we supported that survivor in a way that made them not only feel safe but has increased the number of times that a human trafficking victim will testify or will give information, because it is working with community agencies that support them.

So, in this bill, it deals with the judiciary in schedule 3. Much of what we have heard is that judges and folks in the judicial system are slow to understand this. When it was first new, it was a mess, and it continues to need work. I’m glad to see that there is specific training that will continue to be developed for those folks, and there’s of course work to be done.

There are a lot of ways to reduce barriers when it comes to education.

Interestingly, I’m holding a report about OSAP, and yours is the government that switched from provincial grants to loans. We went from 95% when you took office—the number of grants—and now it’s only 80%; 20% are loans. We’re seeing more people have bad debt; they can’t pay it back. People can’t afford to get the education.

I understand that we’re dealing with staffing shortages. But also, let’s open up access to education, broadly, because some of what I read in terms of the recommendations is that that diversity of experience in education—folks who come from compassionate fields, whether they be in nursing or whatever, are valued in policing. It’s a direction that you should be focusing on. But when no one can afford to get into post-secondary education, we’re going to find ourselves in a mess across the board.

Survivors’ debt is a piece—that’s a recommendation, to forgive that.

Survivors should be given an option to give testimonies not necessarily in a court.

There are other opportunities here, other places—victim service offices across the province.

Mandatory prevention curriculum in middle schools and high schools—we’re seeing that those early interventions in education are critical.

Police and children’s aid units with specialization in human trafficking, with mandatory training in understanding bias, anti-oppressive practice, anti-racism and trauma-informed care—that’s just the basics.

We have to think about human trafficking in the context of human rights. We also have to consider that people who are targeted are predominantly racialized and Indigenous.

And I think, in the context of this bill, looking at the judiciary, there’s a lot of education that has to happen. Is this confinement? Is this kidnapping? Is this prostitution? Judges have no idea, in many cases, if they haven’t encountered it before. Education is key.

You had started your question about PTSD and officers. There’s a lot of stress and challenges with the return to work. This government has invested in OPP mental health services. But I want to challenge the government, because smaller municipalities who can’t afford to provide certain supports—where is the help for them? There has to be a strategy. If we’re going to support mental health needs, then we have to support mental health needs for everyone.

But when any one of us talks to an officer, I would say that they’re going to hear that they are frustrated—