I introduce Bill 28, the Keeping Students in Class Act, which would provide stability and certainty in our schools. We are now just 72 hours away from a strike that would impact virtually every student across Ontario. For more than two months, we’ve been negotiating with education unions with a very fair deal—one that maintains a generous pension package and benefits. We came to the table looking to make a deal, with a significant increase of up to 10% over four years, because we know we have to keep kids in class.

Right now our students need the stability of uninterrupted classroom learning. We cannot afford to put our young people through another roller-coaster of school closures and learning disruption. Right now our students need stability.

For two years, our young people have carried the weight of this pandemic as their lives were put on hold. COVID interrupted all of our lives. It was a once-in-a-lifetime public health crisis that touched every aspect of our daily routine. People had to adjust to a new way of living during the pandemic, and that had real impacts, Speaker, on mental and physical health, and the financial well-being of our people.

But even before the pandemic, students, families and parents were faced with uncertainty in the education sector. Just before our students would have to carry the burden of the global pandemic, education unions forced students out of classrooms. For 68 days in 2019-20, education strikes meant parents had to find child care or take time off work, students missed valuable time in the classroom, and education unions were once again walking out on parents and students as they fought for higher pay and benefits. That uncertainty for students and parents and taxpayers must come to an end. Families have worried for too long about the financial instability that school closures bring with them. For some that means being forced to take time off work, to lose out on income so they can take care of their kids. Others are forced to spend hard-earned income on child care that they wouldn’t have otherwise needed—an added cost at a time of rising inflation, when many are already facing affordability challenges.

Everyone in this Legislature must agree that our students belong in the classroom—they’re finally getting back to some stability. And I’ve heard from those students. They want to be in class. They’re excited to be back with their friends, Speaker, to prepare themselves for the next steps in life. It’s something I’ve heard over and over again in all regions of the province—regardless of how old our students are, or what grade they’re in, they just want to be back in school. They’re finally getting their lives back, as I noted, with a routine. They want to once again gain the experiences and the skills and the knowledge that move them forward within our schools.

As Ontario’s Minister of Education, I have the opportunity to meet so many young people in this province—our young people moving through the education system—and I’ve heard their concerns and I’ve heard their voices, too. It’s a privilege to hear from them. And they’re passionate about their education. But it’s clear what instability means for them. For parents, it means another interruption in their children’s education, and those interruptions can be costly. It’s not just about academics, Speaker—which we know have been seriously impacted here and around the western world because of education interruptions from the pandemic and the strikes that preceded it—but there are other consequences as well.

Mental health has become a challenge for many young people throughout this pandemic. We know that social isolation led to higher rates of substance abuse, higher rates of domestic violence, higher rates of suicide, and this trend of increasing mental health challenges is reflected in our student population as well. According to CAMH, the pandemic had a major impact on the mental health of Ontario’s students: 59% of them said it made them feel depressed about their future; 39% said it made their mental health worse; and 18% reported they seriously contemplated suicide in the past year. The only word to describe these statistics is heartbreaking. And these are not just numbers on a page to be recorded in Hansard this morning—each and every one reflects a student right here in Ontario, whose life is worse off than it was before the pandemic, and it is for them, Speaker, that we have a moral obligation to stand up and keep children in class.

I remember hearing, just a short while ago, from a student who was really struggling with isolation and online learning, whose story reflects the challenges that so many students and their families were forced to confront over two years of extraordinary circumstances, because we know that learning at home had its difficulties. It was much harder for these kids to follow along in a subject like math than it was already in the classroom. I’m going to quote a parent who talked to me about the challenges their child had: “He began to doubt himself. He felt like he was a failure. He no longer had a social circle to help him. He was alone and he was struggling.”

Thankfully, the student is happy to be back in class today. Speaker, you could look in the eyes of this student and see the energy and the passion to be back with his friends in front of his teachers, learning the skills he deserves to. It matters to provide, yes, a critical education, as I noted, but also, I think, importantly, the social supports—the friendship and the return to normal these kids so desperately need.

As I said, this is a story from one student, but it sounds similar to many families in this province who have witnessed first-hand the serious mental and social impacts of learning disruption. Those mental health challenges are only magnified when access to physical health is limited. After-school practice, gym class, phys ed and outdoor activities are all ways our young people burn off excess steam and help them get the exercise they need. And there’s not a great replacement for them when they aren’t in school. So, on top of learning loss, students are faced with isolation and a more sedentary lifestyle.

These are the students we must keep at the top of our minds as we talk about keeping our schools open, as we fight to ensure stability within our school system. These are the students whose first-hand experiences tells us that a computer screen isn’t a substitute for a classroom, that these kids need to be in front of a teacher. We know this, Speaker, which is why we stood so strongly in the defence of a normal and full return to class, something that we know is critical to the life of a child.

Kids have learned through this process, Speaker. And we have learned, as a government, that we have to ensure that these kids have a stable environment around them. We cannot forget or downplay the fact that our young people are profoundly impacted when schools are closed. Young people are profoundly impacted by a school closure; it should not be a routine act in this province, as it has become for the last 40 years in Ontario. However, in most cases everyone here in this place, and all of those who have received a government paycheque, were insulated from this pandemic. We had stable jobs and we knew our paycheques would be deposited. In many cases, we had stable child care options or the means to secure them. To put it simply: People in this building need to better understand—and I speak to the members opposite—that a strike doesn’t impact us all in the same way. We have to remember the impacts it has on the children of this province.

But something else that is clear is that students of all backgrounds and all incomes experience academic decline when their education is interrupted. And all students struggle with the isolation caused by school closures. This was captured by a parent interviewed by McMaster University between March and June of this year, when she said that her “four-year-old son [is] really struggling with isolation. [He has] zero contact with any other people his age.” She speaks of how he has “online contact with grandparents but his mental health and social skills are much worse than they were prior to COVID. We’re starting to see physical impacts as well.” And now Ontario’s education unions want to add further uncertainty to this parent’s life and further disrupt this mother’s son.

Today, members opposite really have a binary choice before them: Will you join the government and stand with parents for stability? Will you stand with parents who have seen the consequences of learning disruption first-hand? Or do you stand with those who once again, just two months after class has returned to normal, seek to throw our entire education system into uncertainty?

Leadership is about doing what is right, not easy. It is about decoupling the outrage on Twitter from the real stories, experiences and often challenges that come with disruption. In short, Speaker, it’s about singularly advancing the best interest of children, and that is what any responsible government should do.

Do not, however, underestimate the power of students in this debate, and do not be mistaken into thinking this government does not understand the contributions our workers make within our schools. Circumstances forced them to adapt, and they did so, doing their very best over the pandemic. But those educators in the front of our class also know in their hearts that these kids need to be in class.

More than anyone else, except for parents, they understand our students are facing a real crisis right now. They understand how two years have been interrupted, and quite simply that means lost time—time that our students cannot afford to lose today.

We know this was not the case across the country, and many other jurisdictions pursued temporary layoffs for support staff. In this province, Speaker, under our government, staff remained employed, with steady paycheques, job security and benefits for their families. And we know they were, and are, an integral part of the reopening of our classrooms, part of our commitment to a normal, stable return this September. They are keeping our schools safe today, and for that we are grateful. Because, in short, it is about singularly advancing the best interests of these kids, and we express a great level of gratitude to the workers who support them.

To recognize the hard and dedicated work across our education system, Ontario’s government came forward with a desire to increase compensation while protecting generous benefits and the most valuable pensions in the country. Our intention was to give the largest increase to those who make the least—topping out at 10.3% over four years. That is a level which far outpaces most private sector wage increases. However, union bosses refused to back away from their demand for a nearly 50% increase in compensation. In fact, this all but guaranteed a strike, sending students home after being back in class for just two months. This is unacceptable. It is unacceptable to parents that they have to go through this again. It’s unacceptable to these kids that they have to be out of class on Friday.

The Keeping Students in Class Act would, if passed, establish a reasonable and a fair four-year collective agreement with CUPE education workers across the province. The bill would enable this government to live up to the promise we made parents: that kids would be in class, without interruption, from September until June, where they belong.

The proposed legislation would establish a central collective agreement that increases compensation for Ontario’s CUPE education workers, offering a salary increase of 2.5%—increased from an initial offer of 2%—for employees at the top end of their salary grids being around $43,000 annually. That was increased as well, from $40,000. And we’re increasing the salaries for those who make above that threshold to 1.5% every year for the life of that contract.

Mr. Speaker, to recognize the importance they play, we’re also increasing benefits contributions, resulting in a $6,100 annual employer contribution for every employee by August 31, 2026.

We are also going to be supporting the funding of the Support for Students Fund, which will establish and help create 875 teachers and 1,600 to 1,830 education workers—more workers in our schools to make a difference for our kids.

Speaker, when you reflect on where we started in 2017-18, there are roughly 7,000 more education workers, specifically, in our schools, because our government has been increasing investments to support more staffing, more EAs and custodians, on the front line of our classrooms.

We’re also modifying the sick leave and short-term disability plan provisions that protect stability of student learning, while maintaining generous pension, benefits and sick leave programs for those workers. We’re providing funding for apprenticeship training of $4.5 million and extending a modified job security provision.

In addition, local collective agreements negotiated and settled with CUPE in 2019 would be extended for four years. All of this is on top of the most generous taxpayer contribution to the education worker pension plan in Canada that we provide. What this means is that Ontario’s government is committed to ensuring our education system is the most generous one in the country.

But this bill also demonstrates our absolute commitment to ensuring students remain in class. Because that is our number one priority as a government. Kids need to be in class to get back on track. For Ontario’s Plan to Catch Up, schools need to be open.

And, to make sure that schools have the tools and resources they need to stay open safely in our post-pandemic world, we have made massive investments in air filtration and ventilation improvements. We have invested more than $600 million to make sure that every single school has improved air ventilation—over 100,000 stand-alone HEPA units within our learning spaces.

We continue to be among a minority of provinces that provide rapid antigen tests to symptomatic staff and students. We’ve also provided more resources and training to ensure our staff have the tools they need to create safe environments. In fact, we’ve spent $3.2 billion to give our schools the tools they need to provide safe learning environments for our kids. That includes up to 3,000 staff who were hired through our COVID support fund.

So we’ve got a plan to make sure that our education workers receive more compensation and that our schools are equipped with the tools to stay safe. But we know our students need tools and support right now as well. That’s why Ontario’s government is also spending a record amount on getting our students back on track with the Plan to Catch Up. It truly is an historic investment of more than $600 million. We’re going to get students back on track in this province. The money will be used, and is being used, to support learning recovery, provide tutoring supports and facilitate summer learning, all while increasing supports for mental health and special education.

We announced Ontario’s Plan to Catch Up last summer, and it builds on Ontario’s Learning Recovery Action Plan, which we had previously introduced in February of this year—we’re continuously investing in our schools and investing in our students to help them through this difficulty—that’s our five-point plan to strengthen learning recovery. It includes $176 million for our historic tutoring support program, and there has been flexibility built in with the tutoring supports being delivered through our school boards and partners directly to students in small groups—after school, during school, on weekends, over the summer and online, too. Mr. Speaker, the province-wide program began in April, and I was happy to announce just two weeks ago that we’ll be extending it into the new year.

We are ensuring there is an effective implementation of tutoring supports in every school board in the province. This is the first and the only tutoring program of its kind in our country. I speak about this because I know how important it is that kids learn the skills they have lost, a learning loss that we have seen in this province and around the world.

To build on this tutoring program, we’ve acted to support parents right now, when they need the help the most. Ontario’s government has spent $365 million for direct payments to parents to address the needs of students who are returning to normal classrooms, because we recognize parents play a critical role in the life of their child. This means that parents and guardians will have the choice to use this funding to secure additional supports to help their kids and to make sure they have everything they need to get back on track in this province.

In response to this—well, we’ve heard it before: Opposition members, unions and others in the education system have attacked this support for Ontario parents with the same old tired lines. They say parents don’t know how to best use this money; they would have used it better for them. Mr. Speaker, this government knows better, because this government trusts our parents, who every day work for their kids and work for themselves.

Be assured that Ontario’s education system is being funded at the highest levels ever recorded in the province’s history. On a budget line, that means almost $35 billion for our education system this year alone. That historic funding commitment from Ontario’s government is having a real impact on our education system. That’s a $90-million increase of investment for mental health, 420% higher than when we started in 2017 under the former Liberal government. We’ve increased the Special Education Grant by $92 million, totalling $3.25 billion this year. This means an increase of more than 3,200 educational assistants helping our students with special needs—real investments from taxpayers getting real results for our students.

In February of this year, Ontario’s government released the Grants for Student Needs, the primary funding vehicle for our school boards—$26.12 billion—again, the highest level of investment in education in our province’s history. It’s an increase of $383.9 million when compared to last year alone. Per-student funding increases the consumer price index, meaning that it is a real net investment. Growth in the Grants for Student Needs since 2002 and 2003 reflects a 77% increase, compared to an increase of 43% in CPI.

Ontario’s historic investment in education also includes nearly $550 million in funding with respect to the Support for Students Fund and the COVID-19 Learning Recovery Fund. Both of these funds are supporting the hiring of staff within our schools. That fund has been extended and increased in this legislation, as proposed, to ensure consistency over time. Together, this means that under our government we will fund up to 5,675 more staff in our schools, supporting our kids in every region of this province. That reflects an addition of up to 900 more teachers, between 1,600 and 1,800 new education workers as part of this proposal, supporting special education and mental health and well-being, language instruction, Indigenous education and STEM programming, which we know is so critical to our kids.

Additionally, this means up to 3,000 more staff like early childhood educators, educational assistants and education workers. That builds on our record of success on this front, because between 2017-18 and 2022-23 alone, between that period since we took office, we’ve added more than 8,000 staff to our education system. During our government’s tenure, that’s 932 more teachers, bringing our total to 132,000 in the province. We’ve added nearly 7,000 more education workers, bringing the total to more than 90,000, and we’ve added more than 200 principals and vice-principals—that’s 8,000 more staff—while student enrolment is virtually flat over this period of time. That is a real commitment to our students and our next generation. We’re giving our students the supports that they need, and that’s proved in the numbers that are black and white before you. We know, most especially, in addition to those supports, the key principle of our plan is providing stability and keeping kids in school.

The record of funding and investment in education staff means that Ontario has the lowest average pupil-to-adult ratio in kindergarten classes in the country, the lowest class size caps for grades 1 to 3, and among the lowest regulated averages for grades 4 to 12 when compared to other provinces and territories that have regulated averages.

We’re supporting our students with our Plan to Catch Up, historic investments in public education, free tutoring and more staff. We’re supporting parents with direct financial supports they can invest in their kids’ success, and we’re supporting our education system with record funding that has employed more teachers than ever before in this province. With these historic investments from Ontario taxpayers, we know that our education system has the tools it needs to stay open and to help our kids catch up, and that’s more important now than ever, after the significant interruption of in-class learning caused by the pandemic. It’s clear that students have been among the most impacted by this once-in-a-lifetime public health crisis.

One parent reflects on the impact of a purely online experience. She said, “I’m worried about the impact ... on my child’s physical and mental” health “as well as their future education.” She’s concerned about the impacts of the shutdowns and the impacts on her daughters and their relationship with each other. That’s not a unique story. This is a typical concern that parents today have, because they say first-hand, themselves, in their homes, the ongoing at-home-learning challenges that they faced. These parents understood quite clearly that we cannot afford more disruption and uncertainty in the classrooms of this province.

This concern is echoed by a mother in Windsor-Essex, who said plainly, “Our children need to go back to school. My daughter genuinely wants to be with her friends in school.” Parents get it. They get that school is a foundational part of the development of a young mind. Academic performance, social development, athletic activity and lifelong success are what our education system is designed to produce. This parent understands we cannot afford more disruption and uncertainty in our classrooms.

The sad reality is that we’re starting to see the clear data on the academic consequences of this disruption. EQAO results paint a picture many parents already plainly saw themselves. Ontario students are no exception to the global trend of learning loss and academic decline. Everywhere, from the UK to New York, from Charlottetown to Victoria, student performance is trending downward, and we believe, as a government, that is not an acceptable reality. English EQAO results have seen a decline. There’s a decline in math in all regions of the province and country. French language, English language, reading, writing and math: In all these areas, we see decline. This is a trend we’re seeing in the entire world faced by disruption. I want to talk about that, because perhaps now more than ever, this is illustrative of the difference that in-class instruction can make.

We know, Speaker, as I mentioned on the EQAO data, math is a critical subject for success in the modern economy. In everything from the trades to business, it is something where hands-on instruction is clearly needed. Working out problems and asking questions are infinitely harder when you’re not in a classroom, and we know that playing catch-up is harder than getting it right the first time. That’s why all of our tutoring support and very basis of Ontario’s Plan to Catch Up are designed to increase competency in the basics: literacy and math.

Math was in our sights even before the global pandemic’s impact. We are already moving to ensure our education system prepares students for success in our modern, globalized economy. That includes our work to destream the grade 9 program, which prevents students from unfairly being excluded from success in STEM by pushing them into applied fields way too early. We’ve also moved to bring back-to-the-basics mathematics, shifting away from the unproven educational “discovery learning” introduced by the former government, and relying on proven education curricula.

We can also see the impacts of COVID on learning loss, and we know that an updated curriculum won’t help on that on its own because they need to be in the classroom in order to receive the benefits of a modern curriculum in the first place. And this government is making sure that’s exactly where they will be, uninterrupted, from September right until June.

Ontario’s Plan to Catch Up will help make sure that our kids can achieve the academic success they need to set themselves on a path to a brighter future. But it was not just academic success that was impacted two years ago by interruption to in-class learning. Our students were confronted with significant emotional and social impacts as well. This was summed up effectively by a newcomer—a parent who only wants the best for their child. This parent said:

“We immigrated to Canada as a family a few months before COVID-19” closed down our schools. “The last two years have been challenging in many more ways than we expected. Our daughter was supposed to be in grade 9 and our son was supposed to start grade 5.

“Both of our kids were excited to start school in Canada and make friends at school. Instead, they felt very isolated and without any social network, which impacted their mental health and overall confidence.... Both my wife and I must work to make ends meet so schools being closed further enhanced our struggles.

“Our daughter is now in grade 12 and is very excited to be in school and finally have the chance to make friends. She can socialize and learn from her peers. It’s actually helping her feel like she belongs and that she can have a future in Canada.

“To be honest, I’ve never seen my kids this excited to go back to school. As parents, we are earnestly asking to keep schools open. This is the only year our daughter can experience a normal school year here in Canada and she would be heartbroken if she had to go back to online learning. We also think it will affect her ability to succeed in university if she is forced to go back.... Please keep schools open.”

This is a parent who understands the importance of in-person learning, the challenges of disruption to their kids, the unfairness that this imposes on them on a cyclical basis in this province. As so many newcomers know, schools are a place for their kids to grow their social circles, to be safe, and in doing so, help connect their families with new people, neighbours and friends in their community. It’s an integral part of their lives, as they adapt to and learn about the life of this country.

This is another parent who understands we cannot afford more uncertainty and disruption in our classrooms. It’s not just newcomers who understand the profound impacts our education system has on the development of our kids as they take these steps forward. It’s an integral part of the physical health and well-being of our young people too. This mother from London correctly notes:

“Kids aren’t exercising, they’re not interacting with their peers or even just other people. Those types of behaviours which we know are kind of maladaptive for healthy child development and learning. As a mother of two school-aged children, I think I speak for most families in saying for the good of everyone’s mental health, our children belong in school.”

And this is absolutely true, Speaker. This parent, another one, who understands we cannot afford more uncertainty within our schools, that we cannot afford disruptions to in-class learning—really, this hits the point of the discussion today. Schools are integral to the development of young people. Their social skills, making friends and learning teamwork: All of these foundational skills are developed and enhanced in a school setting. And to take that away, especially after the past two years, is simply unconscionable.

I’d ask those across the aisle to tell me a number of how many more days of learning disruption are you okay with. How many more hours should we sacrifice? Do you agree with the recent CUPE leader who said they admired the 16-day strike in New Brunswick during a recent online town hall? Does the opposition agree that our kids can afford to lose more than two weeks of learning after what they’ve been through in the last two years? Here on this side, this government is clear: We won’t put up with another hour of learning disruption caused by uncertainty.

But even more than social skills and development, schools are an added layer of social support for those students and their families. Sometimes some of us forget that students rely on schools for a number of critical support functions. I think we all know that schools across the province are places where many students get a meal they would not otherwise have at home, so when students are forced out of class it really is, for them, taking food off the table. It’s removing services that they need to live a healthy life. These are real consequences that should not be abstractions to members opposite. These are consequences felt by those who are the most vulnerable in our society. We must acknowledge these consequences because we cannot paint a picture where students aren’t deeply impacted when they no longer have access to a classroom.

Another very real consequence, when in-class learning is disrupted, is felt by the parents at home who rely on our education system for child care. Ontario’s government has signed a historic deal with the federal government to expand child care spaces and affordability across this province, and a key provider of child care, as you know, Speaker, are modern schools where their buildings include publicly funded child care spaces for our kids. So our schools are a critical part of child care for many families across the province.

One mother with a special-needs daughter captured this when she said, “I am a single mother with a special-needs daughter. It’s up to me to pay all the bills and provide all the emotional and physical supports” for my daughter. “I now have a new understanding of how hard life can get....

“With nobody else to care for her, I have had to take several extended leaves of absence from work. With just my income, I couldn’t afford to send her to daycare either. I can’t begin to express the difficulties both my daughter and I faced the last two years. I know parents with special-needs children understand what I’m talking about....”

Mr. Speaker, this is a parent who understands the consequences of learning disruption, and I hope her words are heard by members opposite, because there are real costs—they are real costs to the most vulnerable kids within our schools. When we take away critical supports like this, like school, from these kids—it means the world to them. This is a parent who understands that our schools are critical and we cannot afford uncertainty or disruption to them.

Every MPP across the province has heard stories like the one I’ve just recounted today. They’ve heard the anxiety from parents and the challenges our students have faced. The MPPs here today should listen to these stories. If they did, they would know how much everyone involved with the education system, from parents to students to education workers, want to have their kids in class, uninterrupted, from September right until June.

A father from Hawkesbury was clear when he said, “Speaking on behalf of my family and the families I know, when the kids are home, you’re spending all day with them. As a parent, you have to help them with ... school.... The burden is heavy for parents, but, more importantly, our children are ready to go back....” They want to stay in school.

Kids in class without interruption: That’s the message we’re hearing over and over again in this province. We all know the burden faced by families when their kids aren’t in school. It is something no one wants to see. This is true for parents like the one I just mentioned, a father who understands that his kids need to be in class, because we cannot afford more uncertainty for them.

This is also true for other education workers, and we can’t forget that. Just the other day, I was speaking to the partner of a grade 3 teacher who told me, “It was so hard for [my wife] to be away from her students. Now that the pandemic is ending, she told me how excited she is to be back in the classroom. It is important to her to be there for her kids. She loves it.”

This is not a scenario where it’s us against them. Our teachers and our education workers want to be in classrooms. They love very much these kids, and we are grateful for the service they make to our schools. It’s why we’re investing historic amounts in them—to support them, to hire more of them, to increase the funding within our schools—of almost $35 billion across the education system. That’s why we’re meeting students where they’re at with a one-of-a-kind, publicly funded tutoring program that focuses on reading, on writing and math. It’s why we’ve created Ontario’s Plan to Catch Up.

But, Speaker, none of this matters if kids are not in school on Friday. None of this matters—all of the staff, all of the funding, all of the people—if kids are disrupted again in this province by an education union. A new mother from Kingsville shared with me, who has another child currently in the education system—she implores us to keep kids in class where she said: “I am on mat leave, so I am able to stay home but it is really hard to care for a newborn and still assist with” my child. “Everyone in my house” needs this support, “and I am desperately hoping there won’t be any more interruptions.” This is a parent who is begging us to keep schools open because she, like many parents, cannot afford more disruptions and uncertainty in their lives.

So if students, parents, teachers and education workers all want to be in class without disruption, what is the obstacle? Why are we here? In short, it’s because of the intransigence, the insistence of a union for a strike, the lack of compassion they have for the impacts on our families.

Parents know that union strikes, unfortunately, are nothing new in this province. In just the past 33 years, since 1989, parents and families have had to endure over 2,200 days of union strikes—2,200 days of strikes over the past decades. That means, in just over three decades, families have had to endure more than six full years of strikes when you aggregate all of the local and provincial strikes in the province. Put more simply, for every five and half years, there has been one year of strikes.

Is this sustainable? Do we think this is acceptable? Do we think this is unique to the Progressive Conservative governments of this day, or a commonality that unites every Premier of every party across the province throughout a generation? It is unacceptable, and someone must speak up for parents to say, “Enough.”

On top of that already staggering number, nearly half a year—137 full days—were actually from illegal strike action. And these numbers become even more stark when you understand that a school year is September to June, encompassing 194 days, not a full 365. So just looking at a school year, 2,244 days of strikes equal nearly 11.6 full years of in-class learning disrupted.

That is as stark as it is informative. It is a pattern we have seen from education unions with governments of all stripes: New Democrat, Liberal and PC. Mike Harris, Bob Rae and Dalton McGuinty all faced strikes from education workers. Not much unites them except the unions of the day escalated against the people of the day, parents and the kids in the classroom that depended on being in school. And this pattern raises an important question: At what point must government act to protect the public interest when it is out of line with those special interests? At what point does a government say, “Enough”—that these kids have been through enough?

I think most parents believe in their heart that these kids need to be in school. We have all heard these stories, moving stories of angst of parents, since specifically Sunday, when CUPE decided to announce a five-day strike notice to proceed with a province-wide strike impacting two million kids, closing school boards across the province. That is not a position parents should be in in this province.

Again, because we’ve just established positive routines in our schools, children have been in school for two months—

Interjections.

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.

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?

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.

Speaker, I have a scenario that’s a true story. Teacher assigns a group project to the class. They assign a student with two other students in the classroom; one has a learning disability and the other can’t read. The student withdraws from this group, moves to the back of the class and starts working on their own. Teacher calls the parent: “What’s going on with the student?” Parent says student isn’t able to teach the other student to read and cope with the learning disability of the other student in the group.

Speaker, how does this bill help students’ experiences and not rob a student of learning by attacking workers? How do you explain how students are supposed to learn in class when you’re not providing supports and EAs and giving them a fair wage? How is this not robbing? Your bill is robbing students of their student experience.

Thank you to my colleague, obviously, for that great question. The reason we’re here this morning so early is to ensure our students are in class for the entire period from September to June, ensuring that they have the ability to interact with their friends in person, ensuring that they’re able to learn in class and do projects together in class and to experience everything we all remember from our time in elementary school and high school and beyond. So this is why we are here today: to ensure that our students remain in class moving forward.

We have been committed since the election—the Premier, the Minister of Education have been clear: We cannot tolerate any disruptions to in-person learning, so we will be in this House to ensure that students can remain in the classroom from September to June, Speaker.

Close enough—it’s Essex.

I’m a father of three. I can remember my kids going up through the school system. I still have one young ‘un. He’s still in high school, and he wants to be in high school. He wants to be in his classroom. He wants to be with his peers. He wants to be with his teachers. I know the teachers want to be there, too. I know everybody wants to be in the classroom, including all of the people we’ve been talking about here today. I think, after two years of disruptions caused by an international pandemic, everybody wants to be in the classroom. So my question to the member is this: Why is this she adamant that people should not be in the classroom?

While the NDP and Liberals sit on the sidelines, this government will stand up for students and keep them in class. That is what a responsible government would do.

Mr. Speaker, we believe in a simple principle, as communicated by the Premier: that children should be in the classroom. It has been a very difficult past few years. It started with strikes, followed by a global pandemic. We have a moral obligation to ensure they are in school, in front of their teachers, with their friends, learning skills—not at home on a Friday or any day this school year.

We’ve been very clear in our intention to stand up for students—and parents—and ensure they’re in school every day.

We are very committed to keeping kids in school. We’ve heard the voices of parents who have told us of the difficulty and the hardship they faced with respect to the pandemic and the strikes that preceded just a short few years ago.

While we remain committed to getting a deal with any willing partner in education to provide stability, we will not tolerate impacts on kids. We will not accept a child being out of school for even one day. We’re taking action to stand up for children while we continue in good faith with our labour partners to get a deal so that we can all bring forth a program that is fair for workers, whom we respect. It’s why we are hiring 1,800 more of them in this program. It’s why this Progressive Conservative government has hired nearly 7,000 more education workers, to date, in our schools.

Mr. Speaker, we’ll continue our work, listen to parents, stand up for students and keep these kids in school.

Interjections.

The Premier is right: We stand alone on this issue, and we will fight every day to ensure these kids remain in school.

We’re committed to keeping kids in the classroom, where they belong. We think that is the priority of all parents in this province, who have seen the hardship, the disruption and the regression in learning, in mental and physical health, and social and emotional well-being. We have to stand up for these kids and give them a voice in this debate. They have been on the sidelines for too long. Strikes have been imposed on them for over 30 to 40 years. I think it’s absolutely appropriate for the government to use every tool at our disposal to ensure stability and to protect the in-class learning experience these kids deserve in Ontario.

Interjection.

Mr. Speaker, I will note to the member opposite that of education workers in this country, here in Ontario they are paid the highest: $27 an hour. They have benefits. They have the best pension. They have 131 paid sick days, part of their sick leave. And as you know, Speaker, we continue to provide more investment in schools, more staffing—part of this contract has proposed 1,800 more workers—to ensure our kids are better supported.

What we will not accept is the idea of children being out of class for even one more day. They have paid the price of this pandemic, and we have a responsibility to ensure they stay in school in front of their educators, learning the skills they need to succeed in this economy.

We believe, in our judgment, that kids should be in school. They should be in a stable, safe environment, supported by their staff and with their friends. That’s why, Speaker, we’ve increased investment in public education. It’s why we’ve offered a better deal, with 10% over four years while maintaining those benefits and pensions I spoke of earlier.

We are doing this because we want to get to a deal. It requires the union to withdraw the strike. It requires the union to bring forth a reasonable offer, not a nearly 33% increase in salary, nearly 50% increase in compensation when you add it all up. That is not reasonable to any observer.

We’re going to continue to work hard and stand up for kids and keep them in schools, Speaker.