On Tuesday, I was invited to a moms-and-tots tea party in the hamlet of Fairground, Norfolk county. This tea party, hosted by the Norfolk Community Help Centre, is part of a much larger picture, a bigger community initiative.

The help centre supports women in the community, largely from the Mennonite population, but also women from the Indigenous community, and, as of late, the Ukraine. The goal is often to work toward obtaining a grade 12 education while learning English as a second language.

Since the program began, 64 Low German-speaking women have graduated with their Ontario secondary school diploma.

The centre also has a partnership with Fanshawe College and the Grand Erie District School Board. Currently, 15 people of diverse backgrounds are learning QuickBooks accounting.

A moms-and-tots program allows these women to come together to improve social, emotional and general well-being. Many of the families served have between five and nine children. These vital community connections enhance independence and coping skills while raising awareness of nutrition, reproductive practices and physical activity. Other supports offered are in areas such as settlement, advocacy, prenatal and postnatal care, as well as Low German interpretation.

The supports being offered in the community continue to grow, all on a shoestring budget, all with the love of a few key people, and under the leadership of executive director Nancy Hildebrand.

Speaker, this is a small but very interesting area with many issues and needs. I look forward to working with Nancy and her team for more opportunities to assist and empower this community.

I want to thank the member from Barrie–Innisfil for her leadership in this House and for standing up for families against the aggressive federal Liberal carbon tax that is raising the costs on all families and all small businesses in this economy.

In addition to opposing that carbon tax by the federal government, we are also providing direct financial relief to parents. In fact, we have done it three times—$1.9 billion over the past three years in direct financial relief to parents, to help support them and their kids getting back on track.

We just unveiled Ontario’s catch-up payments. I’m proud to confirm that 80% of parents have signed up for this $200 payment for every child under 18 and $250 for every child with special education needs—now, there is still 20% of parents who haven’t, and I’m encouraging all members to promote this investment: ontario.ca/catchuppayments. Apply today; get the relief families deserve.

In budget 2023, we’ve reaffirmed our commitment to publicly funded schools. We increased investments for Ontario children by $2.3 billion overall, even on a baseline evaluation. It’s up $1.3 billion from the year prior.

Mr. Speaker, we know there’s more to do. It’s why we launched a tutoring program—$175 million focused on getting back to the fundamentals and the basics of education, lifting up reading, writing and math skills, and refocusing the system back on strengthening skills and development in our school system. We have a modern curriculum mandating financial literacy and coding and transferrable hands-on learning that we know is critical for these young people to succeed in the economy.

Finally, we’re expanding the skilled trades and technology opportunities—requiring students to now take a tech course, starting next September, opening up their horizons and their opportunities to get good-paying jobs in this economy.

I’m sure we all have these families in our riding. For two decades I’ve had a family come to me, since I’ve been elected. They’re on a wait-list for assisted living, the Rodgers family. Their son is Patrick. They’re in their late sixties now.

Recently, I had another family and their daughter. The parents are in their eighties and their nineties and Christy can’t find assisted living.

Currently, I had a constituent just last week talk about her son—he’s 26 years old—Fernando. He has autism and he needs assisted living.

The government has a line in their budget of $202 million for homelessness. Where in the budget is there a line for assisted living for families that need so much help in our province?