If you seek it, I’m sure you will find unanimous consent to see the clock at 6.

It’s an honour to rise today to pay tribute to Keith MacDonald. Born July 18, 1927, Keith MacDonald was elected to the Ontario Legislature on September 10, 1987. Mr. MacDonald proudly served the riding of Prince Edward–Lennox until 1990. He brought the voice of the rural community right here to Queen’s Park under the Liberal Party of Ontario. During his term, he was named deputy government whip and served on two standing committees.

Mr. MacDonald was not only an MPP, but also a lifetime farmer and a member of the Cattlemen’s Association of Ontario. He raised cattle and crops all over Prince Edward county. Mr. MacDonald attended his final cattle auction in Hoards Station in January 2021.

What is also clear is his love for sports. As a youth, Mr. MacDonald was actively involved in baseball, softball, tennis and hockey. His participation in hockey continued as he managed and sponsored teams. Mr. MacDonald was a referee for the Ontario Hockey Association for many years. As a player, he rose to prominence locally as a member of the Belleville McFarlands hockey club that captured the Allan Cup in a seven-game series contested in Kelowna, British Columbia, and then the world championship the following year in Prague. He is lovingly memorialized at the Prince Edward County Sports Hall of Fame, where he was the first approved member.

Mr. MacDonald’s long history of community involvement includes terms as councillor, deputy reeve and reeve of Hallowell township, as well as warden of Prince Edward county. He was a tireless public servant and aimed to serve his community well. I’m sure he is remembered as fondly in Prince Edward county as he is here at Queen’s Park.

Keith MacDonald passed away peacefully at Hospice Prince Edward, Picton, on Saturday, March 27, 2021, at the age of 93. At the end of his long life, surrounded by his loved ones, I hope he was proud of all he accomplished for his community and of his years of public service, both in this chamber and outside of it.

Thank you to Monica Lindsay, Keith MacDonald’s granddaughter, who is here today; Karen Haslam, MPP for Perth during the 35th Parliament; former MPP for Toronto–Danforth Marilyn Churley; former MPP for Scarborough East Steve Gilchrist; and David Warner, Speaker during the 35th Parliament, for joining us here today at Queen’s Park to remember and pay tribute to the wonderful life and legacy of Keith MacDonald.

Applause.

The member for Beaches–East York.

Further debate?

I’m happy to have the opportunity to rise in the House today to speak to this motion put forward by the member for Brampton East, which deals with mental health in education. This is a subject which I know concerns many people in Ontario: parents, teachers, education workers, administrators and mental health professionals are all raising the alarm about the need to address the mental health crisis among our children.

It’s one of the top things I hear as the education critic for the official opposition. Wherever I go in the province, people are telling me about how kids are not okay, how they’re dealing with high levels of anxiety and depression. My inbox is full of stories.

We know from a report earlier this year by People for Education that 59% of our students in Ontario are depressed about the future and 39% report that the pandemic has made their mental health worse. This is something I also have personal experience with. All three of my children experienced mental health challenges during the last three years and one of them is still dealing with very high levels of anxiety.

Mental health is something we should all be talking about much more. It wasn’t discussed at all when I was a child, within my family or at school. I grew up in a Dutch Calvinist family and community, and as I’m sure the member for Timiskaming–Cochrane would agree, Dutch people can be very, very blunt. But that was not true when it came to expressing our emotions. We were expected to stiff-upper-lip our way through everything. Depression and anxiety were never things that were acknowledged, let alone mental illness.

And that’s despite the fact that anxiety is something I’ve struggled with my whole life. I’ve had to put in a lot work as an adult to learn to identify the signs and symptoms of anxiety and strategies for dealing with it.

Thankfully things are pretty different now than when I was growing up. One of the interesting things about virtual school—which my children participated in for a full year—is that, as parents, we actually got a glimpse into what happens during the school day, and my husband and I could see how every single day, the teachers incorporated mental health and wellness information and activities into the day, including having children identify their emotions and talking about strategies for coping with various feelings.

Last week, there was an open house at my youngest kids’ school for Education Week and I got to visit their classrooms. And I noticed that in both rooms there was a space set up for self-regulation.

In my son’s class, it was called the “chill zone” and there were little canvas chairs to hang out in, a stack of books and some posters on the wall with information on self-regulation and strategies for grounding; the “nervous thermometer” to identify how anxious you’re feeling and various options for coping skills with options for movement, like squeezing something, shredding something or using a fidget toy; sensory options like a soft blanket or sitting in a bean bag chair; and processing options like writing in a journal, drawing or talking to someone you trust.

My daughter’s classroom had lists on the wall of coping skills with different options for at home, like calling a friend, listening to songs or hanging out with your pet, and options for school like deep breathing, taking a minute to go to your happy place or chatting with your teacher or another trusted adult.

I was so glad to see these, Speaker, and I’m so grateful for the work that teachers and education workers do every single day to support our kids, to help them to understand their mental health, and help them to cope with challenges.

I am happy to support anything that makes it easier for teachers and education workers in this important work of supporting our kids, whether it’s more instruction on children’s mental health in teachers’ college, professional development for teachers and education workers, or resources provided by local public health units.

But I think it’s also important to acknowledge in this House, Speaker, that talking about mental health and teaching and encouraging kids to adopt strategies is only step one. There are often times when mental health requires more than just self-awareness, more than just coping strategies, and more than just talking to a teacher or a friend. There are also times when mental health requires dedicated mental health support from a professional.

And this is where I find myself incredibly frustrated as a parent. As I mentioned, I have a child who is currently experiencing mental health challenges. I’m going to try to talk about this in a way that doesn’t breach my child’s privacy or right to confidentiality, but last week, my child was in a state of crisis, experiencing incredibly high anxiety and stress. And I sat with them, reminding them to try all of the strategies that we’ve learned, and nothing was helping, Speaker.

My child is experiencing a mental health challenge that simple deep breathing won’t fix, but unfortunately, we have been entirely on our own as parents to find and fight for help for this child. And I know as well that despite my frustration at being forced to fight for my child, my partner and I are pretty privileged in the resources that we have when it comes to fighting for our child. My child and other children in Ontario deserve support.

It is important to talk about mental health with kids, it is important to give them strategies, but it is also absolutely imperative that we provide them with the necessary supports and resources around them to help them when they need it. And sadly, that is just not happening in Ontario right now. We are failing our kids. Half of schools have no access to mental health resources, and less than one in 10 have regularly scheduled access.

After three years of historic disruptions on a global scale, we are only spending 27 cents per day per child on supports for children’s mental health. That’s not enough, and it’s leaving our kids with nowhere to turn. We need to at least make sure that every single school in the province has regularly scheduled access to at least one qualified mental health professional.

Le problème est plus sévère pour les écoles francophones qui ont, en plus, la difficulté de trouver des professionnels en santé mentale francophones, surtout quand les salaires sont plus bas pour des professionnels qui travaillent au sein de nos conseils scolaires francophones. Le Conseil des écoles catholiques du Centre-Est a un seul psychologue et six positions qui sont vacantes. Une des positions a été vacante depuis sept ans. Il faut absolument que le gouvernement mette en place des solutions pour adresser la pénurie de main-d’oeuvre dans le système d’éducation francophone.

It’s also important to acknowledge, Speaker, that the mental health of teachers and education workers is suffering. I hear regularly about the toll that the pandemic and the working conditions within our schools, along with the disrespect shown by the government with Bill 124, is taking on our teachers and education workers. They are experiencing incredibly high levels of burnout and stress. Many teachers and education workers are ending up on long-term leaves due to stress, anxiety and depression. We’re seeing an increase in the number of resignations and early retirements.

The Conseil des écoles publiques de l’Est de l’Ontario would normally have three resignations in a school year. This year, they’ve had 28 so far, and there are still two months in the school year. In the Peel District School Board, there have been more resignations than retirements this year for the first time ever.

If we want to make sure that there are caring adults in the classroom and in our schools to support our kids, then we need to look after the mental health of workers as well. And that means that we have to look at the question of why everyone’s mental health is struggling, Speaker. Because yes, mental health challenges are a constant feature of human life and a normal one that we should talk about and work to address all the time. But we are also in a moment where the mental health of our students, teachers and education workers is particularly struggling, and we also need to ask why that is.

There’s a parable that’s often attributed to Desmond Tutu, although I don’t know whether he actually told it or not, about a village where a child is seen floating by in the water, struggling to breathe. The villagers rush in to save the child and provide artificial respiration. While they’re doing that, there are another two children in the water, and so they rush to save those ones too. And as they’re saving those children, there are more and more children coming, and it’s all hands on deck to save the children. And finally, one villager stops to ask, “Why are these children in the river? We need to go upstream to figure that out.”

When we ask that question, we discover that many of the factors that are contributing to mental health challenges among kids, teachers and education workers are actually within our control as legislators:

—crowded classrooms;

—the lack of focused attention from teachers who are trying to juggle 35 or more students in one classroom;

—seven or more teachers in a single year, because there aren’t enough full-time teachers and occasional teachers;

—kids with disabilities or special education needs who aren’t getting the supports they need, the supports that they’ve been promised

—barriers to accessibility that prevent some kids from participating fully;

—exclusions that prevent some kids from participating at all;

—high levels of violence in schools that result from kids lashing out because of the lack of support.

For teachers and education workers, it’s the moral injury of doing your best every day to meet the needs of the children you look after, but falling short because the expectations and conditions are unreasonable. It’s the expectation of handling a grade 4 class with 20 kids, 13 of whom have an IEP, and two of whom have severe autism, all by yourself, with no support personnel, as happened to one Ottawa teacher who is now on leave. It’s being the only full-time EA in a school of 800 kids, running from room to room all day, triaging who has the greatest emergency, like an EA in Toronto last month. It’s being sent to school in Kevlar as the solution to violence.

Looking beyond the education system, it’s going to school hungry because your mom, on ODSP, can’t afford food. It’s sleeping in a hotel or shelter night after night because you can’t find affordable housing, and then trying to focus in school. It’s kids absorbing the stress of parents worrying about the cost of living, low wages and long waits for health care.

If we truly want to look after and protect the well-being and mental health of our children, then we need to start investing in our public education system, providing affordable housing, livable incomes and good health care, so that our province is a place where everyone can thrive and where everyone gets the mental health care they need, when they need it.

Further debate?

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.

Further debate?

Mr. Grewal has moved private members’ notice of motion number 49. Is it the pleasure of the House that the motion carry? Carried.

Motion agreed to.

The House adjourned at 1543.

It’s an honour to rise to speak to this motion from the member from Brampton East. Speaker, schools need more resources to provide mental health services for students, and professional training for educators certainly is a good idea, but they actually need support. They need more EAs. They need more mental health workers. They need a government that’s going to actually invest in providing those supports in our schools. I can tell you right now, from my own personal experience, educators go above and beyond the call of duty.

I asked my daughter today if I could talk about her own experience—my oldest, who had a severe eating disorder when she was in middle school. It was her teachers who worked with us to identify it, to help her and then to advocate for her to get supports. But the challenges, even for a privileged family like ours, to navigate the system and actually get the supports we needed were huge. I can’t imagine what it’s like for families who—maybe English isn’t their first language or they don’t have the privilege that our family had. And then, on top of those educators helping us get supports for her, my youngest daughter’s teachers went out of their way to support our family, going way above and beyond the call of duty, because they knew that what was affecting her older sister was also affecting her younger sister.

And so this issue is pretty darn personal for me. People ask me why I’m such an advocate for this. It’s because I know what it’s like to have a family struggle trying to navigate the system, and I know what it’s like for a family to have teachers who are trying to navigate classrooms of 30-plus students, and then, off the side of their desks, doing everything they can to help a family that’s struggling.

And so it’s good that this motion has come forward, but we need a government that is going to recognize that according to the Financial Accountability Officer, we’re going to underfund education by $6 billion over the next five years. We need to be honest with ourselves and with the public that only in TDSB, it’s one social worker for every five schools. The percentage of Ontario schools with no access to a psychologist has doubled in the last decade; 91% of schools report that they are in need of mental health supports from psychologists, social workers and other specialists. Just 9% of Ontario schools have regular access to mental health specialists, and 46% report having no access at all.

Nicolle Kuiper, a grade 7 teacher in the Halton District School Board, summed it up by saying we have a system “teetering on the verge of collapse.” So when we talk about funding cuts to schools, that has real implications on students.

And I agree with the associate minister: We have to make a stronger connection between our schools and community mental health supports. It’s why I’m a strong advocate of youth wellness hubs, and I appreciate the government’s support of funding the ones in Guelph and Wellington county. But we also have to acknowledge that 28,000 children in Ontario right now are on a wait-list to access mental health supports. That wait-list can last up to two and a half years.

The base budget increase that went to mental health organizations of 5% in the budget is a good step forward, but let’s be honest. Let’s be honest with the people of Ontario that mental health organizations said, “We need an 8% increase just to maintain existing services,” especially in the inflationary period we’re facing. We have to be honest with people about this, that we have to do more for our children. We just absolutely have to do more.

I appreciate the member talking about outdoor ed. I’m a huge believer in outdoor ed, and the pandemic showed us the importance of outdoor education. But in 2019, when the government cut funding for outdoor education, it led to the termination of programs in the Halton, Bluewater, Trillium Lakelands and Simcoe district school boards. Four of 10 TDSB outdoor ed schools were closed. One child in Halton, Ciara, an Oakville teen, said that Doug Ford’s cuts to end the environmental program—these are programs that changed her life.

And so, yes, let’s support this motion, but yes, let’s invest more in the mental health services our children need and deserve.

Thank you, Speaker. I’d like to start by thanking the members from Vaughan–Woodbridge, Stormont–Dundas–South Glengarry and Ajax for all of your support in introducing this motion and encouragement behind the scenes in bringing this motion forward. I’d also like to thank the member from Ottawa West–Nepean for sharing her personal story with us in the House today and how we should further support mental health in our schools, as well as the member from Guelph for sharing his personal story and thoughts on how we can further expand and improve mental health here in Ontario. Our government is a government that believes in consistently improving the services that we provide to all Ontarians, and I’d like to thank the members for their feedback and their comments.

To summarize, this motion is a stepping stone and a step in the right direction to further increase the supports, to build on the work our government has already done to improve mental health of our students across Ontario. In the last minute, I’d just like to share some of the great things that the Ministry of Education has been able to do, with the support of the minister and with the support of the PA:

—$50 million for school boards to meet mental health needs;

—$26 million to hire permanent mental health workers in secondary schools;

—$10 million for community mental health leaders in school boards;

—$6 million to support school mental health in Ontario;

—$3 million in supports for racialized and marginalized students;

—$2 million to raise awareness for parents and mental health; and

—$2 million to support prevention and proactive mental health initiatives.

With the members in this House supporting this motion here today, we’ll be able to further bolster our supports for mental health in school and make sure that our students thrive in a healthy and welcoming environment.

With that, I’d like to thank all of the members here who listened to this debate, and I’d like to thank all of the members who support this motion going forward.