Through you, Mr. Speaker, I just want to ask the minister: As a parent, I got a lot of calls from other parents talking about how important it is to them for their children to be in school, but what I want to ask the minister is—this government, under the leadership of Premier Ford, has been working for workers. Now, when it comes to this legislation, what is your message to the labour leaders and the union, and what are you saying about the government’s commitment to the relationship with the labour leaders and unions?

Speaker, through you, it is horrendous that the average yearly salary for someone in this bargaining unit is $39,000, with that bench over there and that government over there giving themselves a raise of $16,000.

With inflation entering into double digits, what are you—

Interjections.

I’m asking the minister why it is they’re forcing these workers to go to food banks and work double jobs to be able to support food on their own tables.

I want to start by thanking the member for Ottawa West–Nepean, our education critic. It is hard to believe that she is a new member to this Legislature. She is so well-read and well-informed on this file and speaks so articulately to it that I have nothing but the utmost compliments to say to her on behalf of the caucus.

Speaker, today we’re here to discuss Bill 28, the Keeping Students in Class Act. The Conservative government is continuing their creative writing when it comes to bill names. I wanted to start off—yesterday, there was debate about us coming in this morning at 5 a.m. so that they can rush through this bill as quickly as possible. And the standing ovation the Conservatives gave themselves and the excitement that they had like it was Christmas morning—I’d like to remind the Conservative government that what you are rushing to do is trample on the rights of the lowest-paid workers in the education sector. What you’re rushing to do is to punish people who are forced into poverty because of your legislation, who are forced to use food banks because of your legislation. And, excitedly, you give yourselves standing ovations.

I know, Speaker, there are some on this bench that know what they’re doing is wrong and do not care. But there are some on this bench who, frankly, don’t know, and I’m trying to reach out to you as a colleague and a friend to explain to you that you are hurting your constituents, and—sorry, Speaker—that they are causing harm to their constituents, and also to remind them that there are children living in poverty in their ridings that they could make a difference on and choose not to.

Yesterday the education minister spoke about the value of children going to school to get proper nutrition. Beside the education minister was the Minister of Labour, who applauded, ignoring completely the fact that more full-time working families than ever are going to food banks, ignoring completely the fact that the reason there are breakfast programs in schools is because parents can’t put food on the table. They applaud like that’s normal, like it’s acceptable, like it’s something that the Conservative government shouldn’t be embarrassed about, that perhaps they should be champions and fix the problems that the Liberals created. They spent the last four years blaming the previous government, blaming and pointing the finger. Well, news for the Conservative government, Speaker, is that they are the previous government. And the old adage, “Liberal, Tory, same old story,” you’ve proven again and again and again.

I’m going to move forward to when they proved it again. Because this bill—very similar to Bill 124, very similar to Bill 115 that the Liberals brought in—is attacking the workers’ constitutional right to collective bargaining. I’m going to get back to that.

I want to get to what I wanted to mention this morning. I woke up at 5 a.m. this morning—or before 5 a.m.; I was actually up at about 2:30 this morning, because when it comes to speaking on behalf of workers, I am excited and I am wide awake. And I’ll tell you, I woke up this morning and I drove here in the rain, and when I walked around to the front, because the other exits are all closed this early in the morning, I felt bad for the staff that had to show up early. I felt bad for you, Speaker, who had to show up early, and the Clerks and the pages who had to show up early. But I couldn’t stop but think about Mr. Moore.

Mr. Moore was a school custodian. He worked there for more than 30 years, in Toronto. He took care of his school. He cleaned it. And being a custodian is not a glamourous job. I was a custodian in my twenties—not in a school, but people don’t make eye contact with you, they don’t look at you when you’re emptying the garbage, sweeping the floors and cleaning the bathrooms. Mr. Moore did this every single day with pride. He took care of the students. He showed up when he was sick because he knew how important it was. He showed up early when it was snowing to make sure there was salt on the ground. His wife stayed at home. Together they raised three children. And one of those children is my stepfather. And I know and value the importance of custodians like Mr. Moore because he raised a stepfather, and this stepfather, when I turned 16, helped to raise me.

So why are we here, Speaker? We’re here to debate a massively thick bill. Bill 28 imposes the central terms of a four-year collective agreement on CUPE educational support workers, the school support staff, including educational assistants, custodians, librarians and early educational workers. This act requires the termination of any strike or lockout and prohibits strikes or lockouts during the term of the collective agreement.

I’m going to quote Patty Coates from the Ontario Federation of Labour: This is a “full-frontal attack on free and fair collective bargaining in Ontario. It is an attempt to strip workers of their most powerful weapon: the right to strike, the right to withdraw labour. And it’s an attempt to strip the workers of this before they get a chance to use it.”

Looking around the room, Speaker, as all of us are wearing poppies, I am reminded that in Sudbury, on Friday, we raised the largest poppy flag in North America. They’re trying to find out if it’s the largest in the world. It’s something the city is very proud of. And all of us are wearing poppies. Next Friday, we’ll go to celebrations, memorials for Remembrance Day, and we will talk about our freedoms, and we will talk about the loss. I’ll remember Mr. Moore, who served. I’ll remember my father, Paul, who served; my grandfather George, who served. I’ll remember especially Paul and George because those are my middle names. And I’ll remember their comrades who didn’t come back when they fought for their freedoms.

I’m going to read you a section of the act. It’s from the explanatory note, and I want you to think about freedoms and poppies and sacrifices that people made while I read this:

“The act is declared to operate notwithstanding sections 2, 7 and 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the act will apply despite the Human Rights Code.

“The act limits the jurisdiction of the Ontario Labour Relations Board, arbitrators and other tribunals to make certain inquiries or decisions. It also provides for there to be no causes of action or proceedings against the crown for certain acts.”

I wanted to point that out because there’s an opinion from the Conservative government that unions and their right to collectively bargain wasn’t fought for, wasn’t earned. Unfortunately, Speaker, I don’t think the Minister of Labour knows the history of labour; I just don’t. I saw this previously when the Premier was legislating power workers back to work before they even had a strike. They didn’t understand, Speaker, that a strike vote just allows the union to show support; it doesn’t mean they’re going on strike. I had to explain it to them just before Christmas.

They don’t understand how the legislation works. They don’t understand that this was fought for—literally fought for—by people who died in the labour movement, spilled their blood for this in the labour movement. They either don’t know, or they know and don’t care. That is a theme with this Conservative government: They do not care about workers, they do not care about workers’ families and they most assuredly do not care about their children.

I’ve talked several times about Charity. In August, I asked the Premier to ensure that Charity can get a wage high enough that she didn’t have to go to food banks to feed her children. My compliments to Charity for allowing me to use her name, because I’ve heard this story from many workers who were too embarrassed to share their story, ashamed of where they work and the situation they’re in—the situation that was created by the Liberal government and the situation that’s been enhanced by this Conservative government.

I asked in August, and they refused. I asked again yesterday, and they refused. After that question, Charity reached out to me and said, “I’m honestly terrified. I just want to go grocery shopping. We deserve better than the food bank.” I agree; the government doesn’t agree. The Conservative government doesn’t care about Charity, they don’t care about Charity’s children. They don’t care that children in their communities have to go to food banks.

I can appreciate why they don’t want to make eye contact, Speaker, because if I felt that burden of shame, I wouldn’t make eye contact either. I do not know how they look anyone in their communities in the eye, how they look at their parents, grandparents, children or friends and say, “You know what we did? You know what we did since we formed government in the last election? We rushed back here and we attacked old people in hospitals and forced them into long-term care that they didn’t want to be in. Then we took a long break, because we can’t ever sit during an election. Then when we came back, we attacked the lowest-paid education support workers in the province—and we celebrated with rounds of standing ovations and high-fives.”

I want to propose something to you, Mr. Speaker: that the minister, although he spoke for an hour and spoke previously about this several times—I would like to encourage him, when you look at the size of the bill, to think that maybe all the effort in the bill, all the effort in the selfies, all the effort in the press conferences and the staging could have gone into negotiating. If you can muster the effort to get all of the MPPs here at 5 a.m., surely to God you can show up at a bargaining table and sit down and negotiate a fair contract.

Now, the government, when they speak about this contract, when they speak about their offer, what they use is lump sums. What they use is, “Well, if we do this, eventually it’s going to be this because everyone in the world is going to have to get it.” What they do is they talk about 11%. What they do is they confuse the issue. I want to bring the issue back to where it belongs. They’re talking about an offer between 33 cents and 55 cents. Now, one of these education support workers told me that for her wages, because they’re much lower than the average, it works out to a nickel an hour. This is another worker who is going to a food bank who doesn’t want me to use her name. What they are offering, Speaker, is a nickel an hour to somebody who eats at a food bank. What they’re saying is that if you don’t accept that, “Too bad, because we’ve changed the rules and you have to. Even though you belong to a union and you should have the right to collectively bargain, we’re taking it away before you can even withdraw your labour.” What the Conservatives are doing, and excitedly so, is legislating poverty for these workers. That is shameful.

The Conservative government, time and time again, likes to talk about how the cupboards are bare: “Oh, we have no money. We don’t have any money.” They quote the EQAO stats and ignore the fact that it was one of their failed candidates that they gave this plum job to. I can’t remember the exact number, but it’s about $140,000 a year. It used to cost about five grand a year and, quite honestly, I think anyone who really understands the EQAO would say that we should take that money and just reinvest it into the education system. It really isn’t doing anything besides helping real estate rates. But if the cupboards were bare, maybe they would continue the program for five grand and not have to reward one of their friends. If the cupboards were bare, where would they come up with $365 million as a catch-up amount?

I was watching interviews with this—because obviously we weren’t sitting here, Speaker, at the time. I was watching interviews, and they said, what would parents use the $200 for? The minister said they could buy textbooks—

Interjections.

The member for Sudbury.

I appreciate the member opposite for trying not to laugh.

Can you imagine, to your student—it doesn’t matter if you’re in primary school or secondary—that you go into their class and say, “Not to worry, you’re going to catch up. I bought you a textbook”—clunk. Maybe they don’t understand, Speaker, that the reason they have EAs, the reason there’s a school system, the reason parents wholeheartedly did not support their online learning scheme the last time is because there’s a value of someone teaching you. We don’t just go, “It’s time to start school, junior. Here’s your textbook. Goodbye.” It is ridiculous. They got laughed out of the place for saying that.

Then I guess their comms team went to work and they said they could get tutors. You can get tutors. Some $200—

Interjection: About an hour.

The most embarrassing, the most ridiculous thing and the most insulting part of this, Speaker, is when they said, “And an extra $50 for special needs.” Well, that’s solved, I guess. When I heard that, the first thing I did is I contacted a family I knew who have two children with autism spectrum disorder and I told them, “Your problems are solved because there’s 50 bucks coming.” I say that in jest, but there’s nothing funny about this, Speaker.

This is a government that, when the Premier was running in 2018, promised autism families they would never have to protest on the front lawn of Queen’s Park—never have to protest. The only reason they haven’t lately is because COVID prevents it, but we know, those of us who were here then, that they protested so loudly that we could hear it through the walls. There is a reason that #50KIsNotOK is trending, because there are 50,000 children on that wait-list.

When you talk about “the cupboards are bare,” we don’t buy it. It’s not because we’re the opposition, it’s because we believe in facts. We believe in the Financial Accountability Officer. There is $44 billion in unallocated funds. There is $25 billion in surplus. Conservatives say they have no money, but the FAO says you do. And what I’m saying is, maybe crack your wallet a little bit to pay people who are going to food banks while working full time.

The Conservative government will tell you, “This is about the children. This is about keeping children in class,” and, essentially, it is. That’s where we agree. We need to keep children in class. And there’s an opportunity for the government to do this, and the way the government can do this is by coming to the table and negotiating a fair deal.

The Minister of Education said, “Well, what would that mean to you?” Well, first of all, I think the Minister of Education should go to the table and understand what it would mean to those CUPE members, because they would explain it to him. But he’s created a false analogy that the only way this can move forward is if we ram it through. The only way we can solve this is to ram it through, and that is not how negotiations work.

The reality—and I love this quote; I say it often—is that you recognize good negotiations when both sides walk away with a pebble in their shoe. There is a stone in the education support workers’ shoe. I think the stone, actually, is being held over their head and ready to drop on them. There is nothing in their shoes on the Conservative government’s side.

What we could do is we could invest in public education instead of starving it out. I think that our education critic was right on the money when she said that this is the Conservative game of starve to privatize. We saw this with long-term care. We’re seeing it happen now with health care. Just a quick show of hands if anyone’s excited to get into long-term care because it’s privatized and it’s going to be much better? Crickets. So, nobody. Good, good—we’re all on the same page.

Health care will be probably very similar to long-term care. And education, if it’s privatized, will be probably pretty similar to long-term care as well.

So let’s invest in education, in public education. You worry about kids falling behind and getting caught up? Me too. So let’s avoid the strike by negotiating with them. Let’s invest in these workers that help them be successful. Let’s invest in these workers, the most vulnerable workers, who take care of our most vulnerable students to ensure their success. That’s the solution we can do.

They say it’s about the children. I mentioned already how they completely ignore children who have autism, but I want to remind the Minister of Education that during his speech, he talked about the importance of having children in the classroom, and I guess he forgot that for about, I would say, nine months straight, he said we need two mandatory courses of online learning. Do you know who the most vocal people were about that? Not education workers; parents and students saying, “That is a bad idea.” And he didn’t listen to them then.

He didn’t listen when parents said, “I would like smaller class sizes,” and this was before COVID-19, when parents said, “Do you know what gets good attention? A smaller class size. It’s better for my kids.” I’ve said a couple of times in this room that I have never met a parent who said, “I wish my class sizes were larger so my kids had less attention.” And I’m encouraging you to take the advice, to invest in the next generation so they’ll be successful.

I want to talk about some of the stats here: education worker wages compared to economic indicators, per cent increases from 2012 to 2021. So I’m just going to do inflation and education worker wages. In 2012, inflation was 1.4% and education workers’ wages went up zero. In 2013, it was 1% and education workers’ wages went up zero. In 2014, inflation was 2.4% and education workers’ wages went up zero. In 2015, inflation was 1.2% and education workers’ wages went up zero. Oh, they got a raise the next year: In 2016, inflation went up 1.8%; they got a raise of 1%, a 0.8% cut. In 2017, inflation went up 1.7%; they got a raise of 2%. In 2018, inflation went up 2.4%; they got a 1% raise. In 2019, 1.9%; they got a 2.5% raise. In 2020, inflation went up 0.7%; they got a 1% raise. In 2021, inflation was 3.1%; they got 1%.

The minister, the Premier, the Conservative caucus, Speaker, are very excited that they’re going to get another pay cut because of inflation. They want to talk about percentage increases over time and what it’s going to add up to. But we know—every single one of us who are in this House know, because we knocked on doors—inflation is through the roof. It’s the number one topic for every constituent in our riding. And we know that this will be a pay cut disguised as a raise.

Since 2012, increases for Ontario education workers’ wages have totalled 8.8%. During the same time period, total inflation was 19.5%. That is a 10.7% wage cut over that time period.

I know that the Conservative government, the Conservative members, when they talk to people, when they go to the press, what they’ll try to do is tie in teachers with education workers, and I want to be clear: We’re not talking about teachers. We’re talking about support staff and custodians and cleaners. We’re talking about EAs and ECEs and DECEs. We are talking about the people who take care of the most vulnerable, the people who keep the place clean for us. They have been losing money time and time again, and their wages are at the rock bottom—the rock bottom.

Now, a trope that you’ll hear time and again is that the public sector gets so much money, and it’s not even aligned with the private sector. Well, if you do the math from 2012 to 2021, workers’ wages increased 8.8%—ignoring that inflation was 19.5%—but the private sector had an increase of 20.3%. So that is a myth, and I’m happy to correct you so you can correct it when you go talk to people.

This year, the Bank of Canada is projecting that inflation will be 7.2% and continue to climb. That’s something we’re going to have to deal with, Speaker, for all sectors, but in this one what we’re doing is taking people who are going to food banks and saying, “You’re going to keep going to food banks, because the Conservative government frankly does not care about you or your children.” And that is shameful.

Let’s talk about the Liberal and Conservative plagiarism, I guess. In 2012, education workers were hit with Bill 115. I remember that, because I came down here as a steelworker and walked with education workers. It was snowing out—kind of a lovely day, really, for that time of year. But they froze wages for two years.

The NDP politely explained to the government, “This is a mistake that you’re making. You’re violating constitutional rights, and it’s going to be challenged in court, and you’re going to pay the cost of court, and you’re going to pay penalties.” They pooh-poohed it, and the Liberals said, “That will never happen.”

You fast-forward and—I forget the exact number: $226 million? Over $200 million in penalties, plus the legal challenges. I know that the government is, I guess, comfortable just wasting taxpayers’ money by paying lawyers and paying these fees afterwards, but it’s a bad thing to do. Following that—let me move forward, actually, because of time.

In 2019, the Conservative government thought, “Bill 115—what a great idea. We should do that, but why just limit it to education workers? There are so many public sector workers that we could punish and harm. So let’s bring in Bill 124.” And they stuck to their guns on Bill 124 all the way through.

Every time they rose and spoke about health care heroes and how important they were, I can only imagine nurses and PSWs and caregivers and lab techs throwing up in their mouth, because you cannot say, “I care,” and “You’re important,” and “Thoughts and prayers,” while suppressing their wages and violating their collective agreement rights.

There are 55,000 members of this union that are going to be affected by this—55,000 members. I heard the Minister of Education speak about this, and I don’t even remember him talking about any of those workers. Frankly, Speaker, since I have been here, I haven’t seen this government speak to workers a lot, in general. I haven’t seen them meet with the OFL. I haven’t seen them connect. If you want to make good legislation, talk to people. Even if you think that you’re right, find out if you are by speaking with them.

On this side of the House, the NDP is bringing stories of these education support workers to you and talking about the trouble they’re having. You’ve got to take your fingers out of your ears and you’ve got to listen to them. I want to share some of these stories, in their own words.

This comes from a DECE, a designated early childhood educator: “I cannot get my son who has ASD the services he needs to thrive.”

An educational assistant: “I have to work an extra four to five hours at another job several times a week and also most weekends to be able to provide for my family. These hours are after I’ve worked all day with students with severe needs and behaviour and I’m exhausted. I barely get to spend time with my children.... My heat, hydro and grocery bills have tripled in the last two years alone. I can’t repair my car.... Being a single parent, I don’t have anyone to rely on but myself.”

This part hits me hard, Speaker: “This job is killing me, ruining my relationships with my family and preventing me from having any social life.... Loving my students is no longer enough to justify staying in this job much longer”—after 18 years with this board.

A library worker: “We have had to borrow money to meet basic needs that has put us deeper in debt. Cost of living goes up at a way faster rate than my pay.”

Central administration—it used to be “secretaries,” in the old days: “Have to sacrifice my essentials to provide my child with essentials. Miss out on time with friends due to working a second job. I have collected beer cans to fund my child’s sports.”

A secretary, another clerical worker: “Have had food insecurity multiple times this year.”

Another worker, who’s talking about the source of stress from having a lack of money for his wife and him: “Our children also see and feel this stress, and feel guilty about asking for money for things like sports, extracurricular or going out for the subway with their friends.” Imagine, as a parent, saying, “I don’t know if I have money for you to take the subway because the Minister of Education, the Minister of Labour and the Premier don’t care about us.”

Maintenance and trades—I’m running out of time, Speaker, but this is important; We’ve talked countless times about the importance of the trades and bringing trades forward, and how we’re losing trade workers: “Working with board has depleted any savings I have from a job before working at board. The cost of living, food, fuel, repairs and unexpected expenses have grown so high, we cannot live but paycheque to paycheque, and that’s sad for any multi-ticketed” tradesperson “to have to go through.”

Two more: “As a professional, well-educated person, I shouldn’t have to go without eating for a few days because I simply cannot afford to get groceries.”

And the final one I want to talk about is an educational assistant: “I’m staying in a non-functioning marriage because apart we will not be able to separately afford to live.”

With 20 seconds on the clock, Speaker, I want to remind the government: These are situations that they create, that they endorse, and that this legislation will force onto them for another four years. It’s shameful. They should be embarrassed. We will never support this bill.

Fifty-six.

To my friend on the other side: CUPE is asking for a compensation increase of 50%. Okay?

No, they’re not.

First, thank you to the member opposite for her question. I’m just going to be honest with you: You have workers going to food banks to feed their children. That’s why I think your offer is not reasonable. That’s why anyone in this province would think your offer is not reasonable—sorry, Speaker, through you.

I am so frustrated. I have said this time and time again: Nobody working full-time in this province should go to a food bank. Food Banks Canada produce stats every year in Ontario; in 2018 or 2019, we finally tipped over: that there are more people than ever before working full-time jobs. These are those workers going to food banks, hat in hand, embarrassed to get food for their children because they don’t have enough money—because they hold the purse strings and think it’s fine. Shameful.

That is one example. A hashtag that trends on Twitter is #50KIsNotOK. That number continues to grow. So whenever I hear the Conservative government stand up and say, “It’s about the children. We care about the children,” you could prove it by clearing the autism wait-list, and you choose not to.

Interjections.

If you look at inflation, year after year inflation goes up but their wages don’t, to the point where they’re going to food banks, to the point where they can’t feed their children. So every time you stand up and you use 50% or you use bulk numbers, you are ignoring the fact that employees of this government go to food banks and you legislate it. You can spin it anyway you want, but when you go in your communities and you see people and you can’t look them in the eye because they can’t afford to feed their children, it’s because of your votes on this bill. You choose to do this. You choose to harm them. You choose to ignore the peril that they’re in, the financial stress—

Good morning, Speaker, and through you to the member opposite: I think it’s entirely unreasonable that CUPE is refusing to compromise on their unreasonable demand of a 50% overall increase in compensation.

By way of example, the federal government right now is offering their workers approximately a 2% annual increase, and according to Statistics Canada, the average annual increase in labour talks in 2022 for the private sector is 1.8%.

We all know about the negative effects that a strike would have on our students, their learning and their mental health, but could the member opposite please explain the effects an enormous 50% increase in CUPE compensation would have on the taxpayers and the parents here in Ontario?

Thank you to the member for Sudbury for your excellent presentation.

This government this morning talked about how they were doing this for the kids. I would love to hear your summary of how this government has hurt kids in schools over the last four years.

I have a quick question to the member from Sudbury.

I don’t think that folks even need a labour background to have an appreciation for the egregious approach that the government is taking, because even in the explanatory note, before page 1 of the bill, it says, “The act is declared to operate notwithstanding sections 2, 7 and 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the act will apply despite the Human Rights Code.” So they set it up that they know that it violates the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Human Rights Code, and that it can’t be held accountable by the labour board and all that. How should Ontarians interpret that?

Next question?

It’s my honour to rise in the House as the MPP for Perth–Wellington and the parliamentary assistant—one of two—to the Minister of Education to speak on the Keeping Students in Class Act, 2022. It’s also great to see our colleagues here this morning at 5 a.m. I think of all the workers today that woke up before sunrise to go to work, and I’m glad we’re here to debate this important legislation, Mr. Speaker.

This past September, students from across Ontario began their school year normally for the first time in nearly two years. Speaking to parents and students across both Perth and Wellington counties, and indeed the entire province, the response has been uniformly concrete: Our kids must stay in class from September to June.

Earlier this fall, I had the privilege to attend a commencement in my riding, as I’m sure many other members in this place are doing as well. It was wonderful to see the community, staff and students come together again in person to celebrate their achievements. However, it was the speech from the valedictorian that struck me the most after I left, and I feel it is necessary to share some of what was said with this place. She said that while she was truly grateful to attend commencement and to see her friends and teachers again, she and her classmates “were robbed of their high school experience” because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was a powerful address—

Interjection.

It was a powerful address to parents, community members, students and educators in attendance.

I’ve had the privilege to speak to a couple of classrooms as well since my election, including one grade 11 classroom recently. Speaker, to see students back in the classroom learning and rebuilding relationships was heartening, but it was also informative for me. One student told me that she was just happy not to be learning through a screen o anymore. Mr. Speaker, the learning disruptions caused by the pandemic resulted in hardship in every student. However, in this grade 11 class, I saw students nearing the end of their high school journey, making important life decisions and learning critical skills, and realized that they cannot suffer from disruptions anymore.

Now is the time for concrete action that will make sure students stay in school. We know that school is not just a place for learning but also a place to make many feel supported and grow. Returning to school with a full slate of extracurricular activities has allowed students to regain lost skills, improve their mental health and physical health and to have some semblance of normal in their lives again. In short, we will not allow students to be robbed of their school experience.

We in this House must recognize how important a normal, stable and enjoyable school year is for parents and their children across the province. We must also fully recognize that two years of pandemic-related learning disruptions have left Ontario students in need of a plan to help them recover from learning loss over this period. Parents across Ontario know there is no substitute for in-person learning. We now have access to irrefutable data telling the tragic story of learning loss due to the disruptions over the past couple of years. The EQAO assessment results from the 2021-22 school year revealed exactly what parents throughout the province have been saying: Our students have seen decidedly weaker grades across all levels, particularly in the subject of math. Additionally, results from assessing reading and writing in our earliest learners has revealed a sharp decline in pre-pandemic testing. It is true that other jurisdictions around the world have shown a similar decline in math, reading and writing scores for their students. However, we as legislators cannot accept this to be the norm.

We now know the root cause of decline of these scores: disruptions to in-person learning. Speaker, that is why our government made every preparation to require students to be in in-class learning, on time and in person, so that kids could catch up on their learning, develop life skills and job skills required to succeed in the modern, 21st-century world, and simply to see their friends again in a normal classroom. Ontario’s Plan to Catch Up was informed through expert consultations to ensure a return to a normal school year—nothing short of a whole academic year.

Returning to the classroom means making the necessary investments to do so. I’m proud to say this government has risen to the occasion on this matter. This government is making historic investments to provide top-quality publicly funded education for our children—

Interjection.

I’ve negotiated for 21 years, and I know my colleague has also negotiated, and we know that 98% of negotiations don’t end up in strikes.

We heard the minister this morning talking about 72 hours to the deadline. Anybody who has negotiated in their life knows that deals get done at the last minute. Why? Because both parties—and you talked about the rock and the shoe. Anybody who negotiates knows that. So the minister should do his job, sit at the table and get the deal done.

I’m asking you, since you have experience: What do you think this government should do to get this deal done?

Thank you for the reminder, Speaker.

The reality of this is about the need to negotiate. The Conservative government has implied several times that the union wants to strike. The union doesn’t want to strike. I’ve been on strike—I never wanted to. It has to do with a fair bargaining agreement. The pebble and the shoe—the reason people sign is because things are fair, and the reason they withdraw their labour is because things are unfair.

The member is absolutely correct that negotiations typically go down to the wire, but only when parties are interested.

When you have a government that is preparing for a strike, when they put this much effort—this giant bill—into it instead of negotiating, they are not dedicated to resolving this. They’re not dedicated to keeping children in class. They’re dedicated to punishing these workers who are standing up for their rights. That’s their priority; it isn’t feeding children, it isn’t about a decent wage for hard-working families. It is about punishing people and flexing their muscles.

This is something I would call a straw man argument. That is when you put up something that has no substance and you pretend that it’s factual and that it’s something you can press against, but, like straw, it would bend and flop over with any decent argument.

The reality is, we’re not in favour of a strike any more than you are. We’re not in favour of students out of school—

I want to be clear: We are aligned on the need for children to stay in class. We are aligned on the importance. But where we divide is that we believe there is a way to do this through negotiation, and not through legislation that will harm workers and that will punish people. There’s a better way.

Our government is committed to keeping students in class. The government of Ontario has been engaging in negotiations with education sector unions following the expiry of their collective agreement on August 31, 2022. As of today, it’s more than two months.

Why do the NDP support a strike and keeping students outside the classroom? Why do they ignore the fact that students have to be in the classroom? And why do they punish students and their parents?

I’m getting to the best part, member from Brampton North.

These investments include an additional $683 million in this budget we just passed for this year’s funding to school boards, for a total of $26.6 billion. I want to compare this to the NDP-backed Liberal government just a few short years ago, Speaker. Our Progressive Conservative government and this Premier are investing more than $2.7 billion this year compared to the final year of the last previous Liberal government. This clearly demonstrates our commitment to improving student success, in contrast to the failed policies and practices of the previous NDP-backed Liberal government. These investments will go directly into our children’s classrooms to ensure they receive the top-quality education they deserve and the high standard of learning parents rightly demand.

What our students learn in the classroom is directly correlated to their future success. As such, we must continue to update Ontario’s various curricula, guaranteeing the instruction of necessary life and job skills to support a family and one day realize the dream of home ownership, and everything else included in the Canadian dream.

The previous Liberal government failed at nearly every turn to ensure our children’s studies kept up with the changing times. Neglected by the previous Liberal government, Ontario schools failed to address a rapidly changing world. I’ll provide an example, Speaker: Ontario’s elementary science and technology curriculum, which this government, under Minister Lecce, swiftly modernized, was last updated in 2007, the year Facebook and Twitter came online. This is unacceptable, and our government has made it a priority to constantly look for new ways to update and modernize curricula in ways that best work for students.

Another example includes Ontario’s grade 9 math curriculum, which the Liberals neglected to update since 2008, the same year the iPhone 3G was introduced. This neglect was shameful, and that’s partly why, in 2018 and again in 2022, the people of Ontario sent the Ontario Liberal Party to be independent members on the opposite benches in record-low numbers, and elected this party and this Premier, not once but twice, with a greater majority. Speaker, in doing so, the people of Ontario have given our government a renewed mandate to ensure student success is well-funded and looked after, and, most importantly, that students remain in class.

Ontario’s students deserve to learn in an environment that best equips them for the future. Our schools will finally include financial literacy, something the opposition previously neglected. For the first time, Ontario students will learn about mortgages, interest payments and the impacts of debt accumulation. These are foundational aspects of sound fiscal management which will help them succeed in life.

Students in Ontario and, indeed, across this nation and the western world have experienced declines in math. This cannot be understated, and we will not allow it to be so. We are investing $25 million in a new skills-focused curriculum that will ensure every board has a math specialist available with a special focus on early intervention. This government is also fighting the unions in court to ensure educators meet grade 9 math standards. Our students deserve no less than this common-sense requirement for education, and our government will keep taking every step necessary to ensure teachers are well-equipped to do their job.

For the past four years, this government placed a critical emphasis on science, engineering, technology and math, or STEM studies, in our classrooms. These subjects contain not only the keys to many successful futures for our students, but they represent areas of need in this province that will grow as time progresses. The success of Ontario’s future economy depends on the actions we take now. Under the leadership of Premier Ford, our government is ensuring that students will now explore how science relates to careers in the skilled trades and how emerging and new technologies impact these careers. These new learning expectations within the curriculum will ensure Ontario’s students are at the forefront of emerging innovation and thought, and able to compete in the global economy.

Our government has transformed the curriculum to now emphasize STEM education across all grades, embedding life and job skills that will support the next generation of scientists, innovators and entrepreneurs. For the first time in Ontario’s history, the revised curriculum includes required learning on real-world connections between science, technology, engineering and mathematics. And it includes food literacy. Coming from Perth–Wellington, it is great to see that that is included in the curriculum as well at such a young age, teaching our students the importance of our agricultural sector, food and healthy eating.

This government is also committed to building state-of-art schools which will play a major role in providing top-quality education spaces for Ontario students who need them now more than ever. Our classrooms are critical to the learning recovery for our students.

But, Speaker, we know that success inside the classroom can always use some help from outside the classroom. It is for this reason our government invested $176 million to expand free school-based—through school boards—tutoring supports, the largest publicly funded tutoring program ever in Canada for the students who need it the most. This investment will be used to improve the foundational reading and writing skills of our earliest learners, and to support them with better math literacy after a global decline during the two-year pandemic-related disruptions. This follows our government’s $15-million investment to deliver expanded summer learning opportunities.

Of course, Speaker, we know that schools provide much more than a space for education. Schools have always been important social settings for our kids to make friends and build life-lasting relationships. So it is clear, particularly for our young people, that pandemic-related disruptions have had a profound impact on the mental health of young people. Speaker, mental health is health. Our government and this Premier have made it a point to expand access to mental health supports well before the pandemic, but now more than ever, our children need our help.

This government is proud to have invested a historic $90 million in mental health supports for students, including an additional $10 million in new funding to expand access to much-needed mental health supports. For context, this investment represents a 420% increase on investment compared to the last mandate of the Wynne Liberal government. On this side of the chamber, we understand the critical importance that schools play in the lives of our students. That is why we must fight to make sure they stay in class, where they deserve to be.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to support our newly re-elected government’s continued determination to provide financial relief to hard-working Ontario families. It is real and tangible economic support at the most crucial of times that also respects the choice of parents. Through Support for Families, Support for Learners and the COVID-19 child benefit, our government, under our last mandate, made over $1.6 billion available in financial relief to Ontario families in the uncertain economic times of the pandemic. Mr. Speaker, it was shameful that the opposition voted against all three initiatives to support families and provide relief.

Recently, this government has added to already historic levels of direct support to parents, as I mentioned, by announcing the education catch-up payments, which I am pleased to say, as of this morning, 972,000 families have applied for. This is $365 million in financial relief put directly in the pockets of Ontario parents, which will help ensure our students recover from learning losses accrued during the pandemic and allow parents, who are best suited to make these decisions, to do so.

It is worth noting that every step of the way, as I mentioned, the NDP and the Liberals have opposed this financial relief because they believe in a one-size-fits-all approach drawn up by downtown Toronto bureaucrats far away from the families in need.

There is only one political party in this Legislature which consistently stands on the side of parents, and I’m proud to be a member of that party supporting parents and providing stability to students at every turn.

CUPE’s decision to walk out on students in this province by imposing a needless, but predictable, strike only proves their lack of support for the ones who need it the most: the students.

Speaker, I would like to take the time to set the record straight in this place: At no point, throughout the months of negotiation, has CUPE budged on their demand for a nearly 50% increase in compensation over four years—

Interjections.

It’s simple math that the opposition seems not to be able to do, Speaker.

While Ontarians in the private sector have faced wage stagnation and, in many cases, benefit rollbacks, CUPE believes it is reasonable to demand more than 11% in compensation annually for the next four years and, if not met, that Ontario students—who have suffered, as I’ve mentioned, extensively over the past two years—should be forced to bear the burden when the union once again goes on strike.

As education workers march steadfastly toward another strike, they’re being offered a deal that includes salary increases, year after year, and the protection of one of the most generous pension benefit plans in the nation. This includes 11 paid sick days at full pay and 120 short-term-leave days at 90% of their salary. By comparison, a worker working the same job at Porter Airlines—a great company—receives just five paid sick days and a pension plan that is not even remotely comparable.

CUPE’s eagerness to pursue another strike is unfortunate but expected. Education unions in this province have subjected parents and students to the same tactics of disruptions over many years. Before I was born, in 1989—since then, Ontario students have spent a total of 2,244 days out of the classroom due to union-driven strikes. Together, that totals over six years of being out of the classroom. To put that into context, that’s more than a student would spend in all of high school, even when there was an additional year of instruction for grade 13. I remember the strikes when I was in school, as well.

And it doesn’t matter the government: I want to remind members of all parties in this House that a common denominator of these strikes, as I mentioned, is not the Premier nor the political party. No, Speaker—for the NDP, in just one term—and I’m here to improve the name of Rae in this place—over 1,000 instructional days were lost in the classroom due to union-led disruptions. My Liberal colleagues in this House faced the same types of walkouts and school closures. For nearly—

Interjections.

There is only one commonality in classroom disruptions, and it occurs almost like clockwork. That commonality, Speaker, is the education unions. That’s not fair, that’s not reasonable and it’s not acceptable. To that end, we will guarantee Ontario students remain in the classroom where they belong, where they’re best positioned to recover from the lost studies and learn the skills and knowledge they need to succeed. While CUPE is choosing to impose strikes on Ontario families, parents and kids, Ontario’s government is choosing to keep kids in class.

To the grade 11 students I recently had the privilege to visit, those attending commencement, the students who are again learning in person and participating in extracurricular activities, know this: Your government, Premier Ford, Minister Lecce and all of us on this side of the House will not allow your school year to be robbed from you. And to the parents of Ontario: You can be assured that your children will remain in class with a normal, stable, enjoyable school year from September to June.

To her question about this bill in particular, we’re ensuring students stay in class so they can have those supports, and providing a good and fair deal to the union and CUPE.

Our government has been at the negotiating table, as has already been mentioned, for over two months with this particular bargaining group, we offered them a fair deal, and they still chose to proceed with strike action. And we increased our amount this past Sunday, Speaker. We increased the amount to 10% over a four-year term for the lowest-paid workers: $43,000 is the limit; we raised that too. We provided an additional deal to them, and they still chose to pursue the strike. So, unfortunately, we are here in this place debating this piece of legislation to ensure students stay in school on November 4 and moving forward.