I will just, first off, note that we brought forth legislation to this House, the Better Schools and Student Outcomes Act, and in that bill, responding to the concerns cited by the members opposite, we have required the Ontario College of Teachers to certify educators from the Francophonie, for example, by at least 50% faster. We are requiring better processing times at the college; one of the principle concerns are French-language-education stakeholders. In addition to that, we are requiring new educators to be better trained on literacy, on math, on special education, on leadership and on literacy promotion. If the members opposite want to work with Government on this, they will vote for that bill. We just brought forth a budget—a commitment to hire 2,000 more teachers to benefit our public, our Catholic, our English and French school systems.

But those measures, those investments, that additional staff have been opposed systematically by the NDP.

I really do hope, in good faith, you will vote for this bill so we can work together to resolve the long-standing national issue of a French-teacher shortage in this country.

We understand the need to continue to work together and resolve this issue. We brought forth legislation designed to certify those teachers faster. We brought forth a plan to better train them and support them. In addition, we have a plan to help hire over 350 certified French-language educators. We’ve increased the budget for French-language education to the highest levels ever in Ontario history.

We’ll continue to invest and work together to help French students succeed.

We are working together to make sure that we have a talented next generation of young people prepared to enter the skilled trades, to get good jobs and create good lives and opportunities for themselves.

It’s why we followed the advice of skilled trade professionals, for the first time, in the legislation before the House, to allow more mid-career certified professionals who work in the skilled trades space to work within our schools to leverage that experience that you just can’t duplicate in an academic space. We need these hands-on workers. We’re doing that in the bill. We’re allowing new skilled trade graduation coaches for the first time—leveraging people in the private sector and in the trenches working to build this country and this province—to work with kids to give them meaningful pathways to employment and to professional development.

We also, most recently, required every student in Ontario to take at least one technological education course—for the third of girls who take that course—creating pathways for all of them to succeed.

We know this is going to make a difference to build the economy of the future.

In the new curriculum in math, students now, as a requirement, learn how to build a robot. Every grade, starting in grade 1, is required to learn how to code the robot. We are giving young people a competitive advantage.

When you compare Ontario to the rest of this country, we’re leading, and we’re investing with a modern curriculum relevant to the job market, giving young people the life and the job skills they need to succeed. We’re going to continue to increase investment—over 690 million more dollars—continue to modernize the curriculum and continue to stand up for these young people to have success in our economy.