Madam Speaker, this is great. I was heckled on this and I heckled back. But it’s good to put it on record, because what the member from Essex should know is that, first of all, the Ontario Liberals are the party for education, and we opened 800 schools, either new or expanded schools—800; 800 were opened. One of my first announcements when I was very honoured to be asked to be the Minister of Education was to invest $1.1 billion just in the care of keeping a refurbishment of schools. I urge this current government to keep up with that.

The Ford government failed Ontarians during the pandemic. We heard about the fact that you created unsafe spaces for schools, which led to 27 weeks of closure in our schools. Right now, you are sitting on $2.1 billion in surplus, and yet you’re cutting $1.6 billion out of the education system—

One of the things that we want to remember is that there was a strike and students were out of school and their education could have been at risk at that point because the strike was already under way. So there’s a distinct difference with the pre-emptive legislation that is before us today, as well as the ongoing legislation of Bill 124 that has really capped workers’ wages.

As you said, 70% of CUPE employees are women. Many of those affected by Bill 124 are women as well. I believe that this government seriously needs a gendered lens when it implements legislation so it knows the effects of its legislation on women.

It actually is very disheartening and is very concerning that you cannot govern without the utilization of the most significant, supreme piece of legislation that we have—

I was listening carefully to the member’s comments. I do want to just start by saying that I think many of us certainly do look back on those previous government’s years and—I would say Bill 115 walked so Bill 28 could run. This has been the “set the table.” I know yesterday independent members of the Liberal Party did talk about their regrets. I wonder if you would reflect a little bit on how we got here and why this legislation is so particularly difficult and devastating for the education workers.

We’ll move to the next question.

Before we go to further debate, I just want remind every member to make their comments through the Chair, please.

Further debate?

Niagara Falls.

Listen, I want to be clear here to my colleague: Women make up more than 70% of CUPE members in this bargaining unit and are more likely to be paid in a position with lower annual income than men.

We heard very passionately about living in poverty, going to work for 40 hours, but your government, under the Liberal government Bill 115, froze wages for four years. Why did the Liberal government legislate workers back to work under Bill 115, and do you regret being part of that government?

I listened carefully to the submissions made by the member from Scarborough–Guildwood, and I try to listen very carefully to the statements that are made by members of this House. As I listened, I remembered that the member from Scarborough–Guildwood actually used to be the Minister of Education in a government. That’s an important note because she was the Minister of Education in a government that closed 600 schools across the province of Ontario. That’s of particular interest to me because two of those schools, at least, and probably more, were in my riding of Essex. That government, of which the member was the Minister of Education, closed Western Secondary School, which was a heartbreaking experience.

So my question to the member is this: Will the member reverse the tradition of her party closing schools and keep the schools open like we want to do?

I also listened very intently to the member from Scarborough–Guildwood’s statement, and it’s interesting that the member referred to draconian policies. One time, when they were in power, they imposed incredibly draconian policies across numerous sectors, including education. They also froze salaries and required teachers and everyone else to take 12 unpaid days off a year.

Madam Speaker, I’m going to ask, why we should take that kind of interest in what they’re saying when they didn’t contribute at that time?

Can we clarify from the member opposite the history lesson? The member opposite, I believe, was elected in a by-election of 2013 and in doing so offered herself as a candidate in support of a government that made the mistakes that she acknowledges.

She talks about responsibility. Can she not agree at least that we are being responsible and balanced in bringing these measures in, as a responsible government should be?

We’ll now go to questions.

What my friend opposite has proven to me is something that has disturbed me in the last four years working in this place. Unbeknownst to the people of Ontario, a gravy train has pulled up to this building and it has been helping members of this government and not the workers of Ontario.

I want to talk about the 43 government MPPs who got a $16,000 pay increase last July. That’s $132,000 a year they’re making, while constituents like Lisbeth Slabotsky write me to say, “The right to free and fair collective bargaining is a fundamental freedom protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.” It is not good enough for workers of this province—but it’s great to ride the gravy train if you’re a member of the Ford government.

How do you feel riding on that gravy train, member?

I respect every person who serves because everybody gives back—a sacrifice for themselves.

What I will not say is, the Premier—we have been crystal clear to parents. Parents are frustrated. Children are impacted. Children need to be in class. They are suffering from—

Interjections.

Parents are frustrated. Students have been out of school for two years. We have heard all the data around mental health, we have heard all the data about social skills—and it’s important. We asked CUPE to rescind their plan to strike so that we would continue to negotiate, but they did not.

This legislation is important so we can keep students in school.

“The gravy train has rolled up”—you’re selling the story that we got a raise. It’s the same thing that you guys do—we all get the same. If you were on a committee, you would have gotten the same. If you were a parliamentary assistant, you would have gotten the same. It wasn’t a raise. We all know—both sides—that we’ve been frozen since 2014.

Let’s get back to the fact that students need to be in class—

Interjections.

We have additional students who are suffering from social and mental challenges from the pandemic.

I appreciate and understand that our education workers are being paid—we are offering a reasonable deal. We are ensuring the stability for students and parents through a four-year contract. We’re enabling the refocus of the education system on learning loss, mental health and physical health. We’re increasing CUPE education worker salaries by 2.5%. We are increasing education workers’ pension and benefits contributions by $6,120 annually. We’re continuing to strengthen the integrity of—

Stop the clock.

If we agreed to listen to each other, that would be appreciated.

Next question.

Stop the clock, please. Thank you.

Again, I will remind the members of two things. You need to address your comments to the Chair, whether it be your answer or your questions. And please keep the noise down so that we can hear each other. Thank you.

I’ll go to the next question.

We’re going to go to further debate.

My question is this: Could you describe the harm of a strike on our most vulnerable students right now—those requiring special education?

Thank you to the member from Ajax for her presentation.

Our government is committed to keeping students in class.

Can the member share with the House how this bill can help us keep students in class?

Thank you for my colleague’s wonderful speech.

Speaker, over the past decades, especially through the last two to three years, more of the same unions have been disrupting, along with the pandemic, and have kept kids out of the classroom, without their report cards and all the extracurricular activities they need and want, including sports—and their class. Now CUPE wants to extend this hardship by imposing a strike, starting on Friday, unless the Ontario taxpayers agree with their unaffordable demands for a nearly 50% increase in compensation.

My question is simple: Why is this Bill 28 so important for Ontario parents and students?

I’m glad to be able to address some comments to the member from Ajax. We both have the opportunity to represent Durham region, and I know that she comes from education, as a former trustee.

While she talked about learning experience in our schools, I would say that I don’t believe that this government does care about the learning experience of students or their mental health. When I’m standing here holding a bill that says it has declared to operate despite the Human Rights Code or the “notwithstanding” section of the Canadian Charter of Rights—I want to know which rights are the most important in this province, because these are rights. Collective bargaining is a right. The right to strike is a right. And this runs over those rights.

These are education workers fighting for improved working conditions. Their working conditions, which are increasingly violent and upsetting—which I know that this member has heard directly—are the learning conditions of students.

So why can’t we invest in education and support these education workers? And why the heck are we stripping away their human rights with this piece of legislation?

I want to ask the member—she was a trustee; she has come from the education system—if special education, as she mentioned, is so important and it harms the most vulnerable students to not have these educators in our classrooms, why are you harming vulnerable students by forcing their support system out of the workforce? You’re forcing these education workers, who are paid so poorly that they’re driven out of the province or they’re driven to other jobs, to find enough to make a good living.

I actually got a message this morning from one worker who told me that she slept in her car between shifts at school and her other job because they cannot make enough and do the jobs that they need to do.

These are the people you’re hurting. These are the people you’re driving out of their jobs. And as a result, what happens? The vulnerable students are the ones who are getting harmed. How do you justify that?

Yes.

I just want to ask a question to all my colleagues: Who’s on strike today?

Interjection: Nobody.

I want to tell my colleagues across the row, who are reading the paper and playing with their phones and doing everything else but listening, that 98% of every collective agreement in the province of Ontario is settled without a strike.

I think CUPE is at the Sheraton right now, and they’re saying to this government, “Come and bargain with us.”

My colleague talked a little bit about collective bargaining earlier this morning, and he said, because he has bargained, “I’ve done 150 collective agreements, and most are done in the last few hours, quite frankly. That’s when the movement starts.”

You guys don’t care, because what this is about—it isn’t about the kids, and if anybody thinks it is, they’re wrong. This is about busting the unions. It started with Bill 124, when you attacked their collective agreements, when you made sure they couldn’t take vacation and they couldn’t use seniority. That’s what this is about.

You guys were all happy you had a surplus—$2.1 billion, announced last week. Why didn’t you take that surplus and put it into education? Why didn’t you put it into wages? Why didn’t you put it into health care? Why didn’t you put it into long-term care, when 5,000 of our seniors have died in long-term care? Why didn’t you take that $2.1 billion and put it where it needs to go and get back to the bargaining table and take care of these workers?

Do you know why we’re so passionate over here? Do you know why the member from Sudbury was passionate about it? He grew up in poverty, and so did Wayne Gates. We don’t think anybody should live in poverty in the richest province in Canada, Ontario.

Our food banks are overflowing with workers who are working full-time jobs, working two and three jobs when housing prices are through the roof, gas is through the roof, food is through the roof and—

I want to finish up about the minister. It’s disgraceful that he stood up. When he stands in this House over and over again and says they’re working for workers—do you think this is working for workers?

I’m going to be sharing my time with the member from London West and the member from Niagara Falls.

There have been a lot of interesting comments on what happened at the negotiations table, beginning with the Minister of Education’s academy performance earlier this morning.

Yesterday, Kory Teneycke, the Conservative strategist, was on CBC’s Power and Politics. He warned teachers that the government is ready to legislate them back to work like it has with CUPE education workers. He went on to say, “You can take that to the bank. Because it’s going to happen.” That’s how this government negotiates—not in good faith.

And the rhetoric from this Minister of Education and the rhetoric from the Premier himself on the relationship and the negotiations with education workers has been so demoralizing for the very people who are in that sector.

I want to give the other side of the story. There was an interview yesterday with Laura Walton, the president of OSBCU. This is the other side:

“Laura Walton had insisted just minutes prior that a negotiated deal was still possible before Friday.

“‘Negotiations aren’t done,’ said Walton. ‘This is a piece of legislation that was just proposed. It hasn’t been passed. It’s just a piece of paper that has been received at Queen’s Park.’

“Walton also told reporters the union was planning to make concessions on its wage increase demands and present that counter-offer to the province today”—but this is what happened.

“‘We are working on it today,’ said Walton in response to a question from Queen’s Park Today. ‘We are going to be moving down, but we’re not moving to where’” they want us to go, which is five cents every hour. That was the five-cents-per-hour increase. They’re asking for a 33-cents-per-hour increase—I don’t know where the government members are getting a 50% increase in the contractual agreements. Get away from your speaking notes.

“When asked if the government would refuse to hear the union’s new offer, Lecce said he wasn’t aware....

“‘They had an opportunity to present to the government a counter-proposal they may or may not introduce’....

“The meeting on Sunday was held at the province’s request. According to Walton, the union received the request to meet early in the morning but didn’t realize until the afternoon that the government wanted to present a new offer.” They had trouble pulling everybody together.

“Walton said the province’s negotiators told her side to either take it or leave it.

“‘When we got there, we were informed that this would be legislated. That is not bargaining. That is an ultimatum,’ said Walton. ‘What they did is give us a piece of legislation that gives an extra nickel to workers ... and they walked away’....

“The Canadian Civil Liberties Association condemned the PC’s use of the notwithstanding clause in Bill 28, saying it was never meant to be used as a tool in contract negotiations.” These are facts.

“‘This misuse, and the flagrant disregard for individual rights is wrong and it is dangerous to our constitutional democracy’....” That is true.

“Soon after Bill 28 was tabled in the Legislature,” ETFO, in solidarity with CUPE, walked out as well.

So this is all very premeditated. This government and this Minister of Education never really wanted a deal with CUPE.

I want to just tell the members of the government side how demoralizing this is for the people who spend every day with kids.

This is from a Waterloo Region District School Board secondary school teacher. He said, “In the private sector, if you had a director that utterly destroyed the morale of all their employees, they would be fired, period, because it’s bad for business.” That’s what the education minister has done, but the Conservatives give the education minister a standing ovation?

And to see the Minister of Labour get a standing ovation on a piece of legislation which tramples worker rights—I’ve never seen that kind of—I don’t even have words for it. It’s as low as you can go. The role of the Minister of Labour is to uphold the rights of workers and not trample them.

This educator went on to say, “If the goal this time around is not just to create a crisis in public education, like Mr. Harris did, but to dismantle it by targeting the very people that make it work, if the minister’s goal is to destroy public education in favour of his beloved private schools, then I guess that’s why his colleagues are clapping.” That’s what educators are coming at us with.

“History has taught us that all evil starts with small steps. This legislation will be remembered as a major leap towards dismantling a public education system that has served this province so well for so many decades, and when that happens, the clapping will stop, just as it has for so many dictators throughout history.”

So this is from people who are watching what is happening here in this House, and the lack of transparency is truly upsetting.

I wrote to the Premier yesterday and I said, “Without transparency, it’s impossible to show that there’s accountability. And without knowing there’s accountability, there can be no trust.”

We need to see the mandate letters from this government. When the privacy commissioner told you to release the mandate letters, which they have done, you appealed to the Divisional Court. And when the Divisional Court told you to release the mandate letters, you went to the Ontario Court of Appeal. And when the Court of Appeal told you the same thing, you appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada, where the case is still pending, four years after the initial freedom-of-information ask. The mandate letters will obviously shed some light on what the true motivation of the government is.

But actions speak louder than anything, and what we have seen from this government is an intentional and mindful undermining of public education—and by this piece of legislation, what a dangerous road we’re going down.