Speaker, the minister doesn’t even mention school violence, and school violence does not show up once in this budget.

My question is back to the Premier.

Violence impacts every student when there’s an incident in the classroom. It impairs learning. It changes the culture of trust, respect and engagement.

In their 2023 budget submission, ETFO Thames Valley Teacher Local reported that in London-area schools, the six-month average is 636 violent incidents per month—636 per month. The highest month? Almost 1,000 violent incidents in a school. But most violent incidents go unreported.

What is this government doing to directly address the rising tide of violence in schools and make sure that students are safe?

Mr. Speaker, we are deeply concerned about the rise of violence in communities across this country, and part of our response was to increase base funding in education in the most recent budget by an additional $1.3 billion. We have added and expanded mental health funding by 400%, compared to the former Liberals—$10 million more this year; $20 million in student nutrition programs; an expansion of after-school programs. We created the Black graduation coach program and expanded the Indigenous programs to help those kids reach their full potential.

We have increased support and staffing by a quantum of 7,000 more front-line workers to help reduce the risk and keep children safe and focused on learning in the classroom.

The member opposite speaks about getting to the root cause of crime, and therefore, I would ask members opposite to stand with this government and every provincial Premier to urge the federal government to end the revolving door of justice and get tough on violent criminals who put too many of our kids at risk. That’s the way we do it. The other way we do it is if we’re prepared to stand with law enforcement against violent crime that’s impacting too many children in our schools, in our communities and across our country.

We’re going to increase investments. We’re going to support our kids and, more importantly, ensure they are safe when they’re in their school premises.