My question is to the Premier. Speaker, this government is desperately trying to paint caring adults who work in our kids’ schools as the bad guys. Everyone else knows they work hard and deserve their rights, fair wages and respect.

James is a school custodian who writes: “I now barely earn enough to support myself, let alone help my mom who’s 75, also still working as a part-time custodian because she can’t afford to retire....

“My school board job doesn’t pay me enough to pay for the rising costs of living. My co-workers and I earn on average $39,000 and can’t afford to live on that. We want our students to have the services they need in our public schools.

“I am asking you to give us the improvement on wages and working conditions that I need, and not support legislation that takes away our right to negotiate those improvements.”

What would this Premier like to say to James?

Erin is a frustrated education assistant and she writes: “The schools are on ‘fire.’ In all my years I have never seen the challenges the schools and students are facing each day.

“We need to fight to ensure no more dedicated, effective workers leave their profession because they need to pay their bills.

“We need to fight to protect the students’ rights to the proper resources and supports that they need to be successful in the classroom.

“We need to fight to ensure that the students get the education system they deserve. They should not have to pay privately for a proper education.

“All I want is a liveable wage. I want resources and money put into our education system so that all our children, including my own, have the best chance at a positive and successful future.

“I want the government to respect us and our roles and that is shown through true collective bargaining. The bully tactics the government is using is not only an attack on education workers, but on all unions.”

What on earth would this Premier like to say to Erin?

The custodians at the Ontario French school board make $18 an hour. I’m hearing from parents and students who want our education workers to make a living wage. Parents and students marched with our education workers on Tuesday at Queen’s Park to demand that the government return to the negotiating table, and they will be marching with us on Friday to demand that this government give these workers a living wage.

Parents and students are angry that you are stripping Ontarians of their charter rights. They are demanding that you get back to the negotiating table so that there’s no disruption to our education system and that our workers, the people who serve our children every day, are making enough money to pay for the basics. Will you do that?