I’d like to welcome students Ethan McQueen, Logan Wolf, Michael Finelli and Hunter Parass, and their mothers, Andrea McQueen and Karen Wolf, from my community. In September, 11-year-old Ethan and his friends held the second annual Sleep Out to shine a light on youth homelessness and human trafficking for Covenant House Toronto. They raised a record $16,000.

I think the biggest question is why the member opposite and her party and her group did nothing and sat on this for decades. Our government is taking action. We want every child and youth to have a safe and loving home. That’s why we’re redesigning the child welfare system. That’s why we’ve boosted the number of inspections at licensed group homes since January 2022. It’s why we’ve added 20 new staff to support enhanced inspections of children’s residential services. It’s why we released the children and young persons’ rights resource in youth-friendly language to help children, youth and young persons understand their rights and use their voices. And we’ve backed up this important work with significant investments.

Our government is fixing a long-standing issue that the previous government, supported by the NDP, never bothered to.

Thank you to the member opposite for that question. Mr. Speaker, we recognize the impacts that the pandemic has had on the well-being of children across Ontario. As a result of that, we have made investments and have continued to make investments: $20 million, for instance, on an across-the-board 5% increase in funding to increase all core mental health supports and addictions services for children and youth. This includes $2.7 million for new hubs in Guelph, Renfrew, Timmins and Windsor. The youth wellness hubs are actually providing immediate support to children and youth so that they can have a place that’s safe and culturally appropriate to go and get help.

Through our Addictions Recovery Fund, as well, we have invested $8 billion to another eight hubs to continue to increase capacity for children and youth. These sites have helped over 12,000 people—children between the ages of 12 and 25, with low-barrier addictions and mental health supports.

We know how critical the supports are for our children and youth and we are making investments to ensure that they have the help they need, where they need it.

We inherited an incredible situation when we came to government and I have some questions that I ask myself all the time. For instance, why were the Liberals, with investments at $11 million, sending children with eating disorders to the United States, rather than building continuums of care here in the province? In 2010, there was a report from the standing committee where there were recommendations that were made. How many of those recommendations were put into practice? Zero.

Speaking about the NDP, who stood beside them, 13% of Ontario mental health beds—9,645 hospital beds across the province—were closed under their leadership—