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.

The member for Niagara Falls.

I’m sorry; I’m going to interrupt the member. I’m going to insist that you make your comments through the Chair and not across the aisle, please, if that’s possible.

That’s the problem over there: You actually think it is. But do you know what the minister has tonight? Do you know what he has tonight, through the Chair? There is a rally tonight of CUPE workers, sponsored by the Ontario federation, which represents one million workers who you never talked to once on this bill—not once. You never give them a heads-up on what you’re trying to do.

But do you know where the minister is going to be? He’s going to be right beside the rally. He’s not going to be at the rally, by the way, like you’d think the Minister of Labour would be. Do you know where he’s going to be? He’s got a $1,000-a-plate dinner tonight, when he’s standing up applauding that they’re attacking workers—$1,000 a plate.

Interjections.

That’s what I wanted, and do you know what? Every single one of those CUPE workers—do you know what they want? They want a fair collective agreement, a negotiated collective agreement. I’m encouraging this government to get back to the bargaining table, to get to the Sheraton. CUPE is waiting for you. Don’t bring in a bill that’s a hundred pages, because what that tells me, through the Speaker, is that it’s very clear what they were thinking. This was planned, because it’s an attack against the union. It’s an attack against workers in the province of Ontario.

Do you know what workers should do in this province? I’m going to say it: We need to come together as workers and say to this government that if you take on one worker in the province of Ontario, then you’re going to take us all on, because an injury to one is an injury to all. Thank you very much—and come to your senses at some point in time.

Order, please.

If there has been one thing that has become abundantly clear over the hours of debate—almost five as of right now—it’s that every provincial government does its battles with education unions, period. If we go back in time to when the opposition was in power in the 1990s, they actually put across a bill that left everyone at zero, froze salaries and required teachers and everyone else to take 12 unpaid days off a year.

When the independent Liberals were in power, most recently in 2012—and the NDP held the balance of power, even though they may not have supported Bill 115—education workers saw a 0% increase.

My question to the member from London West: Is a 2.5% increase—10% over four years—a better deal than what the opposition parties have offered?

Thank you very much for the question—very timely. Clearly the money is there, which is why we have called into question the motivation of this government with regard to Bill 28. There is no need to bring forward this piece of legislation, which has obviously been in the works for months now, because you just don’t pull a piece of legislation out of thin air like this.

And it’s very true: The FAO, an independent officer of the Legislature, has said that the government will have run a surplus of $25.3 billion over the next six years, that there is an unallocated contingency fund of $44 billion. This is money that the government did not spend on keeping classrooms safe during the pandemic. This is federal transfer money that the government squirrelled away.

I was actually asked this question last week. I want to say to the government, that money needs to go to public services. There is no reason for this standoff to be happening with education workers—or health care workers, for that matter. You need to repeal Bill 124 and pay the people who do public services in this province adequate salaries and show them some damned respect.

Shame on all of you.

My question is to the member for Waterloo. Last month, the Minister of Finance actually announced that the Ontario government ended the fiscal year with a $2.1-billion surplus, a far cry from the $33-billion deficit that was projected. Following shortly afterwards on October 27, the FAO then criticized the Conservative government for not being transparent of how they were going to spend the money over the next several years. Then they revealed that there’s a $44-billion unallocated contingency fund and about $40 billion in programs unspent. The FAO says the contingencies are not generally used to address these shortfalls.

My question, Speaker, to the member is: If the provincial cupboards are bare, as claimed by the Ford Conservative government, why are they misleading Ontarians with the austerity budget and punishing education workers with legislated poverty by taking away their collective bargaining rights and disrupting human rights?

Madam Speaker, I listened carefully to the submissions by the member from London West, and it was very, very, very clear that the member is willing to entertain the possibility of a strike and a close-down of schools. It’s very clear. We’ve enunciated on this side of the House that we will not entertain a disruption to the children’s learning. We’ve made that very clear. So the positions are very clear. They’re very diametrically opposed: one side, the opposition, being willing to entertain the possibility of closing down the schools, and the government not willing to entertain that possibility.

The member from Ajax pointed out that there are many vulnerable students who will suffer if the schools are closed down, students who have missed out on learning and students who, in her words, don’t want to be subject to uncertainty or missing out.

My question is as follows: Will the opposition join us in protecting those vulnerable students?

I really do appreciate that question. My phone was ringing off the hook. We got lots of texts the last two days. I’m going to read one—I brought a lot of these examples here, but I only had six minutes to talk and not 20, so I couldn’t use them: “A caretaker at the board for 14 years, I’ve barely seen my wages increase—only a 31-cent increase an hour over the past 14 years.” She currently makes under $39,000 a year. She told our office that if she didn’t have additional income supports right now she’d be forced to go to the food bank, something she knows some of her colleagues have to do every week. The working conditions are similar in her case as right across the board.

I thank you for that question, but there are cases and cases and cases like that being called to everybody’s office. I’d be surprised if they’re not calling your offices as well. You guys might not answer the phone or emails, but they are definitely calling—

I appreciate the question. I think that all of us on this side of the House have been very clear that workers deserve to be fairly compensated and they deserve to bargain the compensation that they’re going to receive at a bargaining table through fair and free collective negotiations. This government has decided to invoke an imposed contract on these workers rather than sitting down in good faith to talk about what kind of a deal will compensate them fairly and preserve the supports that our children receive in Ontario classrooms.

Our education workers provide a vital, essential service in this province. They deserve to be fairly and adequately compensated for that.

I’d like to thank my colleagues for their excellent presentation, and painting a very clear picture of the impact of Bill 28 on everyone, but, most importantly, on students and families. I’ve heard from many constituents in the last couple of days really expressing their concern. These are parents, family members, people with kids in their schools, who understand that this legislation is going to hurt everybody. One constituent wrote to me saying that “Using the ‘notwithstanding’ clause to keep people in poverty in a climate of record inflation is an affront to the principle of democracy and basic human decency.”

I’d like to ask the member from Niagara Falls what he is hearing from his constituents, parents of children in schools.

We’ll now go to questions.

This question is for the member for London West. I wonder if the member opposite is interested in facts such as that education workers in Ontario are the highest paid in the country, that CUPE custodial staff earn more than their equivalents in a hospital would and they collect the most generous pension and benefits in the nation, that their wages are comparable or above others in the private sector, and that while CUPE continues to claim that the average education worker makes $39,000 per year, what they fail to mention is that that stat includes part-time workers. Is this member interested in facts? That is my question, Speaker.

Interjections.

Further debate?

Thank you to the member from Guelph. The Conservative government, all morning now, for five hours, as the colleague had said, has been saying that there’s no way to stop a strike unless they mandatorily take away their collective bargaining rights and force them to continue using food banks.

Do you believe there’s any way that we can negotiate a way to keep schools open and elevate the wages of these workers so they aren’t going to food banks?