Speaker, our government believes children should be in the classroom, and I hope the members opposite would agree with that premise.

We said we would repeal Bill 28, and we did that. We said we would increase wages across the board. In fact, we have increased wages by over $335 million over four years for the lowest-paid workers. We also said that we would offer a flat rate; we did that too.

The question is, why are we here? We did everything we said we would to workers at CUPE to get a deal that keeps kids in school.

We are absolutely committed to a fair deal. We’re going to stay at the table.

I urge the union to call off this needless strike. Work with the government. Let’s get a deal that keeps kids in the classroom.

All we ask is that kids stay in school. We think they need to be in school after the disruptions of the pandemic, of recent strikes. This should not be something that is done in this province ever so casually—strikes every few weeks. Kids deserve to be in school.

I urge the union to stay at the table. Let’s get a deal that’s fair for the workers and keeps kids in the classroom in this province.

Mr. Speaker, unlike the provincial Liberal former government that closed 600 schools, we have now invested in over a hundred construction projects, as we speak—$14 billion over the next 10 years to renew our schools. We are increasing funding, increasing staffing. And we insist these kids stay in the classroom.