I’d like to welcome, from my constituency of Vaughan–Woodbridge, Nicholas Vine and Aleksandra Dowiat, whose daughter Sophie is page captain today.

Welcome to Queen’s Park.

Thank you to the fantastic member for Hastings–Lennox and Addington for the important question.

He’s right; for many Indigenous communities across the province, the consequences of addiction and mental illness are far too real.

Last week, I had the privilege to spend time in Middlesex county to meet with the chiefs of the Chippewas of the Thames, the Oneida of the Thames and Munsee-Delaware First Nations to talk about investments we’re making to improve mental health and addictions services for Indigenous communities across the province.

I announced recently that our government has provided $33 million in additional investments for important capital projects, as well as for culturally safe and appropriate services in Indigenous communities—investments, for instance, like the $1 million going to my hosts last week, the Chippewas of the Thames, to build a mental health and addictions crisis management centre. This is how we’re going to plug Indigenous communities into the recovery-oriented continuum of care that our government is building to ensure that everyone gets the supports they need, where and when they need them.

I want to thank the member for Brampton East for sharing his time with me today and for bringing this important motion forward. I’d also like to thank the member from Ottawa West–Nepean for sharing her personal story, her children’s story, and also for sharing some of the ideas and some of the things that I certainly believe in—and we believe in, as well—that we need to do.

The mental health of students has become a pressing issue in our educational system, with three quarters of recently surveyed principals and vice-principals of Toronto schools finding it increasingly difficult to manage student behavior. With the increasing pressures of academic performance, coupled with personal challenges, it’s essential to prioritize the well-being of our young learners. To achieve this, the Ministry of Education should continue the work they’re doing, working with stakeholders to improve the professional learning opportunities for educators and school staff, and encouraging and facilitating the opportunity to focus on social-emotional learning skills and mindfulness, while also working with the community sector to ensure a seamless delivery of additional care, when and where appropriate.

And of course, when we look at a continuum of care, which is something that we all understand based on the Roadmap to Wellness, and the importance of delivering a seamless level of care on a continuum of care basis, to ensure that we can deal with the issues, whether it be in the classroom at school or where additional services and supports are required that there is a seamless hand-off to the appropriate service providers to be able to look at those more complex cases, teachers and other education workers are in a unique position. We need to understand that and to appreciate the importance of how they can influence the mental health of their students. They interact with them daily and can identify the signs of emotional distress, helping students cope and develop healthy habits.

I don’t know how many times I’ve heard stories of young people with eating disorders not being identified in the classroom or even by their parents. So the education and providing those supports to be able to understand the needs of the youth are obviously extremely important because they lead to, then, providing the supports where and when those supports are necessary.

Teachers interact every day with these children, and they can identify the signs of emotional distress. This will help students cope and develop healthy habits. However, we know that teachers often don’t have the resources, the training or supports necessary to address the mental health needs of their students. By providing teachers and other education workers with the appropriate resources, we can create safe and supportive spaces where students can find peace and learn the resiliency skills that will carry them through whatever challenges they may face.

We’ve all heard the statistic that 70% of the mental health and addictions issues we see in adulthood could have been identified, and there could have been supports for individuals so that they wouldn’t carry them into adulthood. Well, that is part of why this is so important.

One crucial resource that teachers require, I believe, is mindfulness practices. Mindfulness practices such as meditation and deep breathing exercises have been proven to reduce stress and anxiety while improving concentration and overall well-being. Mindfulness can be easily integrated into the daily routine, and teachers can create a calming space in their classrooms for students to practise. While this may not be enough, it is the beginning.

I can tell you, having been in India just recently, looking at the system of yoga and meditation, that by introducing it into the classroom for just a half hour a day, they were able to reduce violence by 30%. I thought that maybe was unique to the culture, but I’ve also seen similar statistics out of California, where schools that had high rates of violence within them started utilizing a half hour of mindfulness and yoga as part of their curriculum. They also saw a 30% drop in violence in schools. These practices, I believe and we believe, can create an environment where students can develop resilience and emotional intelligence.

Moreover, teachers and education workers require access to a range of mental health resources beyond mindfulness practices. A review of the physical education and health curriculum to include active and outdoor learning practices would also allow us to integrate components of land- and water-based healing practised for generations by Indigenous communities across the province. We know that these do work; we’ve seen them utilized in Indigenous communities, and we’re also seeing, by introducing them into the system, how they’re impacting children and youth.

Just recently, I was in Kenora with Kenora Chiefs Advisory, and I had the opportunity to visit Strecker Farm in Kenora. Over 3,000 children every single year are going through a program there with equine therapy, with art therapy, with activities that are providing them with all they need to change their lives and improve their lives.

Building resiliency requires a multi-faceted approach, and teachers must be equipped with the necessary resources to support their students. This is why this is so important. We need to work towards creating an environment where the children have each and every type of support necessary. We can’t keep doing the same thing over and over again, thinking that somehow we’re going to get a different result. We need to look at other jurisdictions where we see positive growth in the children and youth by utilizing systems that may seem strange to us but actually are working because they have elements that are necessary for the development of a child, many of which wouldn’t otherwise be there in an environment other than a school.

Mental health awareness programs can help teachers and other education workers identify the signs of distress and provide students with the necessary resources in the school or the community setting.

Now, I said it: We need to have that connecting piece, and where I believe as a parent—and having been now the Associate Minister of Mental Health and Addictions—we sometimes fall is that connecting piece between the education system and the actual community-based services. There has to be better communication. There has to be a continuum of care where those children are able to get the supports outside of the classroom where and when they need them.

We know that many of the issues that children face each and every day can’t be resolved within the school confines. They need to include family. They need to have complete supports for individuals—and children can see each other, speak to each other and understand what those needs are. This is how the problem will get resolved, and this is why we’re working towards that.

Findings from the 2021 Ontario Student Drug Use and Health Survey indicate 42% of students reported there was a time in the past year where they wanted to reach out and talk to someone about a mental health concern but were unsure of whom they could turn to. Providing all education staff, including teachers and administrators, tools and resources they require to support good mental health will ultimately lead to the academic, social and emotional success of students. This is something that I know is true—again, as the minister meeting with different organizations and young people, the number of times I hear that the young person doesn’t know where to turn.

As a matter of fact, just recently this past weekend, I was at the Kids Help Phone walk in Vaughan–Woodbridge, and I had the opportunity to speak to some of the children. You know, it’s incredible that a Kids Help Phone line spoke to 16 million children in the course of one year across Canada. The statistics are staggering. These kids need support. These kids need an outlet. They need that connecting piece. And the more we can do as a government to create those connections I believe will make a huge difference in their lives. We can’t do this in a silo. We can’t allow the system to continue functioning the way it is. We need to break those silos and build those connecting pieces, and that requires building stronger partnerships with our community children and youth mental health providers.

When it comes to dealing with the diverse and complex mental health needs of our young people, we want to build their social-emotional learning and resiliency in appropriate settings and ensure they also have access to the continuum of care that we’re building here in the province of Ontario. It’s important that students in need of mental health supports are able to get those supports easily, and teachers and other education workers engaged with them will require supports to be able to do that kind of work with students so that they can get the support they need in the community sector. Those outside supports can be critical through transition periods, over the summer and changing schools.

Investing in mental health resources for teachers and all education workers is an investment in our children’s future, and it’s an investment we as a government believe in. By prioritizing mental health, we create an environment where students can flourish academically, emotionally and socially. Mental health resources help students develop the resilience, empathy and the emotional intelligence necessary to succeed academically and in life. We need to equip those teachers, as I said, with the necessary resources and empower them to create a safe and supportive space that fosters emotional well-being.

With this motion, I believe our government is building on the work that the Minister of Education has been doing to better equip and train our province’s educators with the appropriate resources they need to support students and help them overcome the mental health struggles that children face each and every day.