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.

I rise today to join the debate on Bill 28, legislation that follows a long line of anti-worker bills that this government has brought forward. We saw that in their first term of office, when they introduced Bill 124, when they did a complete override of collective agreements with the emergency orders, so in some ways this legislation is not all that surprising.

What is concerning, however, about Bill 28 compared to those previous acts of this government, is its unprecedented use of the “notwithstanding” clause and the override of the human rights protections that are included in the Human Rights Code. This is the first use in Canada of the “notwithstanding” clause to suppress constitutionally protected charter rights. The courts have been very clear that freedom of association includes the right to fair and free collective bargaining, as well as the right to strike. This government removes those constitutionally protected charter rights and will engage this government for years in court fights about the government’s use of these provisions.

Just last week in this place, we eulogized Bill Davis, who was a part of the group who repatriated the Constitution. Bill Davis brokered the deal that brought us the “notwithstanding” clause, and he was very, very clear that it was to be used very, very sparingly, and it was to be used to provide new benefits for disadvantaged or marginalized populations, not to use the heavy sledgehammer of legislation during collective bargaining.

As my other colleagues have mentioned, it is clear that this bill took some time for the government to write. This was not a bill that came off a word processor in a couple of days. They have been working on this bill for months—for months, Speaker—as CUPE members have been sitting at the table waiting for the government to negotiate in good faith.

And who are these CUPE workers? They are education assistants; they are early childhood educators; they are custodians; they are school secretaries. They are the backbone of our education system and they are the lowest-paid workers in our education system, and so low paid, in fact, Speaker, that many are relying on food banks, as we have pointed out time after time. There was a survey that CUPE undertook of its members which found that half of CUPE members struggle to pay their bills each month. The paycheque won’t cover basic necessities of food, of utilities, of transportation. They’re not getting a sufficient salary to meet those financial obligations that they have to feed their families and maintain some semblance of a quality of life. One quarter of CUPE members said they couldn’t afford gas or public transportation on the wages that they were being paid. More than two thirds of CUPE members said they had to stop setting aside money for savings because there was no money to put aside at the end of the month.

So these are not workers who are being well compensated and are asking for unreasonable wage increases. They are workers who are asking to be paid what they are worth. And we saw during the pandemic how very crucial these workers are to the health and safety, to the academic success, to the well-being of children in this province. Do children matter to this government? Does it matter to this government that there are caring adults in our school system who are able to support kids in schools?

This government talks about the fact that they want to bring stability and end disruption in our school system, but if they watched what happened after Bill 115 under the Liberals, when a collective agreement was imposed on education workers, the aftermath of that legislative action lasted years, Speaker. I was one of those trustees who was there at the time of Bill 115. I saw the complete demoralization of education workers across the education system. I saw parent frustration higher than it had ever been because of the dismal atmosphere in our schools. We saw students who were losing opportunities that they needed to engage in education and be successful and go on. That is the legacy that this government is going to be bringing to public education with this action.

There is speculation that maybe this is all part of the government’s plan to privatize more and more of our public services, and that the direct payments to parents that have been flowing out during this pandemic and the $345-million catch-up payments to parents is all part of a backhand way of privatizing public services. The government says that parents should be trying to chase down tutors to help their kids in school, but parents are saying that they know that what will help kids in school is having early childhood educators; it’s having educational assistants; it’s having custodians; it’s having school secretaries who are compensated appropriately and there to support their kids.

I just wanted to read a couple of emails that I have received from parents. One parent wrote to me, “The lack of support for educational staff is callous and unforgivable. I have two primary school-aged children and frankly no amount of mental health support can prepare us for yet another year of disruptions and virtual school. The kids need to be in school, and educational staff need to be adequately compensated.”

Another parent, with two elementary school-aged children, says, “If a strike is necessary for these workers to be treated fairly their right to strike should absolutely not be taken away! Our children have had a lot of disruptions these last few years but we cannot agree with the idea of the government taking away the right to strike. It shows us that the government is not working to bargain in good faith.”

I implore this government—there are several days left before November 4—withdraw this bill, get back to the bargaining table, talk to CUPE workers, negotiate a fair deal, give our kids the supports that they need in our classrooms and help preserve quality public education in Ontario.

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?

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?

I rise in this chamber to voice my full support for our government’s plan to catch up and for the actions we are taking to ensure our province’s children can enjoy a normal school year.

I speak to you not only as a minister and as an MPP but also as a mother. My children have always been blessed with amazing education workers in their schools.

But why we’re here today is to ensure that children are staying in school.

For the first time in two years, children are back in their classrooms and they’re experiencing an academic year expected to be free of disruptions.

Ontario schools are safe for in-person learning, thanks in part to the over $3.2 billion in COVID-19 resources we provided to school boards since the start of the pandemic and the major improvements we have made to air quality and ventilation in schools in every corner of the province.

Hard-working parents in Simcoe North have made their expectations clear. They want their kids in school and learning alongside their peers right up until the academic end of year in June.

I was speaking to Kim last evening, a grandmother, and she was explaining how important it is for her grandson to stay in school. She also commented that this has been going on since the times when her daughter was in school. Students need to be in the classroom.

I believe that Simcoe North families, and indeed all families across Ontario, deserve a normal school year after two years of pandemic-related disruptions.

Today, Madam Speaker, Ontario students are back in the classrooms where they belong. The 2022-23 academic year is two months’ old and is going very well so far. Moreover, students are benefiting from the full school experience, including sports, band, field trips and after-school extracurricular clubs and activities.

The purpose of education is, of course, to prepare our young people for the jobs of tomorrow, but school is also about spending time with friends, sharing a laugh or two and, of course, achieving personal goals. Those goals might include displaying excellence on the football field, mastering an unfamiliar song, captivating an audience by acting in the school play, or raising money for a worthwhile community cause.

Madam Speaker, I hope that everyone in this chamber can agree that in-person learning is essential for the mental and physical health, as well as the overall well-being, of Ontario students.

It is true the pandemic demonstrated the usefulness of online or remote learning, and I definitely saw that in my own ministry. Remote learning certainly has a role to play in the delivery of education, but the pandemic also demonstrated its limitations. I know every member in this chamber has heard from constituents of ours about the difficulties during the pandemic with online learning, and especially with young children at home.

For the past two years, our kids were isolated. Many students had trouble adapting to remote learning, and some even experienced physical and mental health challenges—and that’s for those people who had access to Internet, and stable Internet. I know many of us were working from home, had children trying to learn from home—and in rural ridings, we know that can be difficult. It’s not surprising, considering the COVID-19 pandemic was a frightening time for all Ontarians, but especially for children, who lost two years of normal school experience.

Thankfully, Ontario’s Plan to Catch Up includes significant investments to help students cope with these anxieties. In fact, we are delivering a $90-million investment in student mental health supports. That includes $10 million in new funding, and it represents a 420% increase in student mental health funding compared to the previous NDP-backed Liberal government’s plan in 2017-18.

The simple truth is that mental health is health. We cannot begin to fix all the damage caused by the pandemic without acknowledging this fact and providing meaningful mental health supports for our young people.

Student mental health is just one issue that needs to be addressed. The reality of this once-in-a-lifetime pandemic meant students would face new obstacles in their education. Now, as we emerge from the pandemic and return to our normal lives, we need to be prepared to help those young people who bore the weight of many public health restrictions.

Students are excited to be back in the classroom, to see their friends and their teachers, and to be back to normal activities. Although I don’t have young children at home anymore, I know, from watching the news on back-to-school day and seeing the young kids who were super excited to be out there talking to the reporters—even their parents—how excited they were to return to normal and to see their teachers, to see their friends, and to have those fun learning activities in class.

A global trend emerged, and it has become visible in the United Kingdom, the United States and across Canada. Students across the country and around the world experienced similar challenges with remote learning and other pandemic-related disruptions to education. In a nutshell, we are seeing steep declines in math, reading and writing.

As the recently released EQAO results demonstrate, that trend is unfortunately visible here in Ontario as well. As the Minister of Colleges and Universities, I find it troubling as that continues, possibly into high school and into the post-secondary world—the possibility of that.

The EQAO assessments showed a decline in every subject field except for grade 6 reading. Grade 3 students experienced a four-point decline in reading, a seven-point decline in writing, and a small drop in mathematics. Grade 6 students saw a further three-point decline in math, from 50 to 47. This is a real problem, and it is even more profound for French-language students, who saw a 33-point drop. Grade 9 followed the same trend, with math scores dropping 23 points for English-language students and 25 points for French-language students.

Learning gaps created by the pandemic are a significant problem, but it is important to put things in their proper context. In Colorado, for instance, only 27% of students tested in the spring of 2021 met or exceeded state math standards, while here in Ontario 67% of grade 3 students met or exceeded provincial math standards. In a comparative sense, Ontario is in better shape than other jurisdictions, and I want to make that clear. But it does not mean that we can afford to rest on our laurels. More work needs to be done.

It is for that reason that Ontario’s Plan to Catch Up includes the largest tutoring program in Ontario’s history. Our government is investing $176 million to expand access to free, school-based tutoring so thousands of Ontario students can utilize learning resources in their communities to help them succeed. Since April of this year, over 150,000 students as well as over 18,000 special-education students have accessed local board-provided tutoring supports. In addition, many parents have taken their own initiative and invested in tutoring supports for their own children.

Our government believes parents should be in the driver’s seat when it comes to their children’s education, and we were elected to make life more affordable for hard-working families in my riding of Simcoe North, as well as across Ontario. For those reasons, our government recently announced the availability of catch-up payments to parents. As you know, Madam Speaker, our government delivered over $1.6 billion in direct payments to parents through three dedicated support programs to help families cover the costs of child care and at-home learning created by the pandemic.

I am proud to say that we are going even further by investing $365 million in direct financial relief to parents, who could use some extra support in uncertain times to help their kids catch up. Through this program, parents with school-aged children up to 18 years will receive $200 per child. Parents with school-aged children with special-education needs up to 21 years of age will receive $250 per child. Being at home this weekend, I talked to many constituents, when I was out, who mentioned that they had already signed up and were accessing the program and were very happy about the additional supports.

I am told that over 970,000 applications for catch-up payments have been submitted, which amounts to over one third of eligible students in our province. Applications for catch-up payments will remain open until March 31, 2023. Madam Speaker, I hope that you and all honourable members of this House will encourage parents of school-aged children in our respective ridings to apply as soon as possible. We need these additional supports.

As an aside, I think another big reason Ontario students may have weathered the pandemic storm a bit better than students in other jurisdictions is that our government is strongly committed to improving public education, and we are delivering tangible results. Our government is providing school boards with $26.6 billion in total funding for the 2022-23 school year, which is the highest investment in public education in Ontario’s history. Average per pupil funding through the Grants for Student Needs program has risen to over $13,000, which is an 2.7% increase over last year and yet another record high.

Our government has also been busy updating the curriculum to ensure it does a better job of preparing young people for the jobs of tomorrow. We are taking these actions because the world is changing, and the stakes could not be higher. As technology advances, the global economy is increasingly becoming a digital economy. We must adjust to the reality or run the risk of getting left behind. It is estimated that more than 40% of jobs in Canada are at elevated risk of getting disrupted by technology and computers.

Moreover, Ontario is in the middle of a skilled labour shortage of nearly 370,000 unfilled jobs just here in this province. And one of the most crucial labour shortages is in the skilled trades. We will need at least 100,000 additional trades workers over the next decade to build desperately needed housing for Ontarians. By 2025, it is estimated that one in five jobs in Ontario will be in the skilled trades, but the average age of people entering the trades is 29.

Madam Speaker, since our government was first elected in 2018, we have addressed this challenge by reviewing and updating the province’s curriculum. More specifically, this has meant making financial literacy and digital fluency key priorities, investing $200 million to support a four-year math strategy; teaching valuable transferable skills such as leadership, communication, collaboration and critical thinking; improving science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM learning; and my favourite, promoting the skilled trades as a top-choice career path for young people and increasing awareness of and access to apprenticeship programs.

Two years ago, we launched an updated elementary math curriculum that teaches coding skills starting as early as grade 1. Mandatory learning on coding from grades 1 to 9 will further enshrine Ontario as a STEM leader.

Last year, our government launched a destreamed grade 9 math course that builds on earlier skilled trades-related learning and drills down on financial literacy, including interest rates and budgeting.

And earlier this year, we introduced a new science and technology curriculum, including a destreamed grade 9 science course.

Madam Speaker, our government is making progress improving STEM learning in schools and in promoting skilled trades as a first career choice.

In my former ministry of women and children’s issues, I was an advocate for women entering the skilled trades and starting this in early grades and really allowing girls to have the opportunity to use their hands. We have a great opportunity to increase the number of women in skilled trades and promote the great opportunities and advantages they will have.

These are key reasons why I believe Ontario students will effectively catch up and overcome any learning gaps created by the pandemic. Mind you, my assessment is based on there being no further disruptions to student learning this school year.

Unfortunately, the leadership of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, or CUPE, has threatened a strike that could put over 55,000 education workers, custodians, early childhood educators and administrative staff on the picket lines at the worst possible time.

Let me be clear, Madam Speaker: Our government deeply respects Ontario education workers and the valuable work they do. I see it every day. I’ve seen it in my own children’s learning over the years. We have the utmost respect for them. School custodians and early childhood educators are excellent examples of unsung heroes who performed their jobs magnificently during the pandemic.

That said, it is completely irresponsible for the leadership of CUPE to rile up its members by making completely—

To the member from Guelph, thank you for your comments.

I’ve heard a lot of concern about the mental health of students, but I’m wondering if the member from Guelph would like to speak to the mental health of the workers. I wonder about what their mental health will be like when they have their human rights overridden, when they have their charter rights overridden, when they are taking second and third jobs to survive, when they are accessing food banks, when they don’t have the money to look after their own children. I wonder what kind of mental health we can expect from them when they are working with the most vulnerable of our students.

I appreciate the opportunity to interact with the member from Guelph. His party hasn’t gone through the stresses of having to govern and having these battles with the education unions, so I was wondering if he might be able to offer us his insights on this matter.

When the NDP was in power, they legislated 0%. When the Liberals were in power, they legislated 0%. We are giving the lowest-paid education workers a 10% raise over four years. Is that a better deal than what the other parties have given?