I have a letter that I would like to share from a very concerned and upset mother. She wants me to know, “My son ... is struggling in school. He is ADHD and has autism. He is seven years old ... and desperately needs an EA or some kind of support. Our teacher is absolutely wonderful, for the first time in many years. She specializes in special education but the thing is like a lot she is running out of resources. He is very high needs and desperately needs 1:1 support in class. Unfortunately all requests come back as ‘no budget’ or no more staff available.

“I’m so upset as my son gets very hands” on “sometimes and can’t self-regulate. Last week he had an incident and now is told he has to sit in the office with admin staff to realize his actions (he has no idea what is going on). So this morning I pulled him to get some testing done. I was told because he missed part of the day he would be making up the hours tomorrow ... he would spend the full day again in the office with no outside recess, which he barely gets to experience.

“I’m so upset for my son. He is so bright and is being held back because of apparent resources not available and then making him spend all this time in the office. I’m ready to pull him.... He is being secluded from his peers” and “he is very liked in school.

“Can you help me in any way? I have no idea.”

My question to this government is: Why won’t they fund schools so that students like this child can participate and learn with the resources that they so desperately need?

I’m glad to be able to ask a question of the Minister of Energy. I’m glad to hear his enthusiasm for broadband. I wish that we saw that the government was actually investing in that enthusiasm at more than the rate of 2% of what they’ve budgeted.

Specifically, I wanted to raise something that’s sticking in my craw from the other day. The member from Nickel Belt thoughtfully raised a concern from her neck of the woods about the lack of broadband investment and hope—the lack of hope, I think, because in northern and rural communities like the riding of Nickel Belt, businesses are not going to put in broadband; there’s no money in it for them. She asked if the government would take responsibility, a public solution, and she was mercilessly mocked for suggesting such a thing.

I would ask the Minister of Energy, who’s excited about broadband going across the province, how is this government going to ensure that when companies will not put it in because there’s no money for them—how are they going to get that broadband? Or are they just up a creek?

I’m glad to be able to ask a question of our critic for finance after her thoughtful speech as we are again talking about red tape reduction. I appreciate that she raised the issues shared by the folks who do the planning, the staff at the city of Oshawa who were raising issues with this government about a proposed minister’s regulation under the Planning Act. While that may be separate and apart from this particular bill, this is a bill that is undertaking to reduce red tape, and yet here’s a brand new regulation the government is proposing and asking for feedback on, and the folks in Oshawa have said it is onerous and will require additional temporary staffing or overtime. They are seeking clarification on even some of the terms in the regulation because it’s not intuitive. They’re asking for the government to approach this differently or to re-approach it and answer their comments. Should they have any hope that that will happen?