I will be sharing my time with the member for Sudbury today.

Normally when I rise in the House, I start by saying what an honour it is to speak, but today is the first time that I’m disappointed about rising to speak. I’m deeply disappointed that this government, which consistently put our kids dead last during the pandemic, is now threatening their school year. I’m deeply disappointed that this government, which promised kids a normal, stable school year, is refusing to bargain a fair and reasonable collective agreement which would ensure they experienced no disruptions. I’m deeply disappointed that this government, which shut down schools for more time than any other jurisdiction in North America and consistently refused to invest in the smaller class sizes that would protect them and help them to catch up, is now putting that education further at risk by driving away the caring adults who support our kids every single day.

Every day for the past two and a half years, these workers have been there for our kids, many of them in person, because CUPE education workers fill many roles that still needed to be done in person—cleaning schools, supporting kids with accessibility needs. They have been there for our kids despite the fact that the government was paying them wages so low that one quarter of them have had to reduce the amount of food they use or go to a food bank to get by. And the thanks that this government is giving them is to go nuclear on them and on our kids’ school year, trampling on the rights of workers to collectively bargain and legislating a wage rate that will drive even more workers out of education. So much for supporting our kids. So much for a government that will have workers’ backs.

Let’s be very clear what we’re talking about here, Speaker: CUPE education workers fill very important roles in our schools as education assistants, early childhood educators, custodians, office staff, lunch monitors, IT staff, library workers and bus drivers. They may not be teachers, but our system simply could not function without them.

My kids have been blessed with great teachers, but it’s the CUPE staff at their school who really stand out in my mind as special. Madame Pat, the kindergarten ECE, is the one who loved on my kids every single day when they started junior kindergarten, making me and my partner feel okay about our babies being at school. She’s the one who helped my oldest daughter through a difficult time when mom was away working in the 2015 election, checking in with Mira every day about how she was feeling about mom’s absence. When I thanked Madame Pat later and told her what a support she was to my daughter, she said her heart just soared, because all she wanted was to know that she was making a difference in the lives of her little pupils.

My son, Luc, has been having some health challenges over the past year. And it’s the school receptionist, Ms. Amelia, who is the one that checks in with us every time Luc isn’t feeling well, sharing his symptoms, discussing strategies to see if we can keep him in class or whether we need to come and pick him up.

I’ve heard so many stories like this from parents and teachers, Speaker. These workers are so important to students, to parents and to teachers. They meet kids’ physical needs. They meet their emotional needs. They meet their accessibility needs.

Kerry Monaghan, an Ottawa resident whose son has autism, said, “He was able to attend his first field trip because she was there to be with him.

“Just like she’s with him every second he’s at school doing everything a parent would do for their child with additional needs. She is there when I can’t be. She is worth everything.”

Jason, one of my constituents, has a child with an anxiety disorder that constantly disrupts his learning. Last year, he had an EA in the classroom who helped him to take body breaks when his anxiety got too high. The EA spent countless hours assisting in the implementation of his independent education plan and gave him access to a few thousand dollars’ worth of special equipment that would stay locked up if the EA were not there with him. Jason says the EA changed the trajectory of his son’s educational experience.

In another case that was shared with me, a child with severe motor disabilities was told he would always have a limited ability to communicate and socialize. Due to careful, patient and professional attention from an EA, he is now able to communicate and work with other kids. He is now about to go off to high school precisely because of the improvement he’s made alongside support from his EA.

Another child who refused to talk to other children or teachers and was always alone was transformed through her relationship with her EA, who helped to build her confidence, enabling her to socialize and to make friends at school. Another child who only attended school 20% of the time is now attending school 70% of the time. Why? Because an EA was there to help him patiently with his tasks. After months of progress, he told his EA, “What would I do without you?”

An EA named Maddy had a student in her grade 8 class who was self-harming at school. In one instance, she stayed at the hospital with this student for 12 hours until she was admitted, and continued to be her biggest advocate in order to ensure that she could get CAS support, a psychologist and a plan for her transition into high school. When she moved to remote learning in 2020, Maddy would meet with her remotely every lunch break because this student had no one else to speak with. Doing this work in a broken system was incredibly taxing for Maddy, but she knew it was important work. Maddy and this student have stayed in touch, and this student has now enrolled to volunteer in her class to help other students in need because of Maddy’s impact on her life.

The system simply couldn’t function without these workers, our kids couldn’t get by without these workers, but the minister doesn’t think these workers are valuable enough to be paid a living wage. He doesn’t think that the support they provide to our kids is important enough to ensure that our schools are actually able to hire and retain these workers.

These workers have been telling us that their backs are against a wall. They love our kids, they want to keep supporting our kids, but they can’t afford to keep doing this work. The average salary is just $39,000. Half of these workers have had to take another job just to make ends meet. Half of them have had to put off planned household spending. More than a quarter have had to cut back on food or use a food bank.

We already have a shortage of workers in this sector. As I have met with stakeholders over the past month as education critic, people from every part of the education sector—parents, trustees, principals, teachers and education workers—have all raised this concern with me. Roles are going unfilled, leaving the remaining workers struggling to fill in gaps to make sure our kids remain supported. In some cases, parents are being forced to fill in the gaps, including one parent we just learned about this past week who has to sit outside her daughter’s school every day to make sure that her daughter can use the washroom. In other cases, kids with accessibility needs are being told they can only attend school on certain days or that they’re not allowed to participate in certain activities because the supports aren’t there for them.

Now with this imposition of an unreasonable collective agreement with only a nickel more per hour for these low-paid workers, the minister is ensuring that not only will these shortages remain unfilled, but we’re going to lose even more workers.

I just want to pause here and acknowledge just how shameful it is that this Premier and this minister, both men earning over $165,000 a year, are telling an overworked, underpaid and predominantly female workforce that they need to be “reasonable” about pay increases. A Premier who gave his whole caucus a $16,000 a year raise as if it was candy on Halloween telling workers using food banks to be reasonable: It would almost be a joke, except that the consequences are no laughing matter.

Let’s hear what workers and parents have to say about this situation the government has created. One constituent in my riding of Ottawa West–Nepean has been an early childhood educator for over 35 years. She devotes hours of unpaid work each evening in the classroom just trying to catch up. In the midst of the pandemic, she spent hours ensuring that school would feel as close to normal as possible while keeping children safe and focused on learning. As an ECE, she cleans and disinfects her classroom constantly and ends up having to do the work of overwhelmed custodians because their workload is so excessive. Her working hours have increased exponentially because she recognizes that education is a priority, not a last resort.

But doing this extra work takes her time away from the children that need her support in the classroom. She has seen how the excessive demands on education workers have led to a large exodus of skilled workers as they become mentally exhausted from dealing with large amounts of stress. On top of that, she has seen multiple colleagues take on two jobs to support themselves, making it increasingly difficult for these workers to meet the needs of their own families and pay their own bills.

After 35 years, she is earning only $38,000, and with the cost of living so high, she can barely keep her head above water. Her standard of living has dramatically decreased because her salary has not kept up for over a decade. She lives in social housing with rent-geared-to-income, but still often has to ask for help just to get her through the month.

As a parent and grandmother, she wants to see good-quality education programs in the classroom; as a registered early childhood educator, she wants to be respected for her knowledge, abilities, skills and experience. But this government isn’t willing to show her that respect.

Holly Rodrique is a chief custodian at her school. She ensures that all garbage inside the building is picked up, that the bathrooms are cleaned and sanitized, the toilet paper replenished and she orders all of the supplies needed for her custodial staff. She says that sometimes she has people who come into the schoolyard at night and break glass or leave needles, leaving things that could injure the students. It’s Holly and her staff who ensure that these items are picked up. They need to be there to ensure that the school grounds remain clean. They’re the ones who are helping to keep our children safe.

Despite their important work, Holly says that inflation and wage cuts are making it extremely difficult for her and her staff to pay bills and make ends meet. She says, “We’re living cheque to cheque basically, so it’s very, very important that we get a decent wage just to be able to live. I want to fight for things and have them in place and make sure that they’re there for the next generations coming up.”

Crystal, who lives in Ottawa West–Nepean, works as a library technician with the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board. She currently works part-time at two different schools but works full-time hours. She describes her days as exhausting, often getting home later than she anticipated, spending her evenings repairing ripped clothing for the next day because she cannot afford new clothes. She often comes home with drenched feet from standing in wet grass on yard duty because of holes in her shoes she cannot afford to replace. Crystal’s diet is heavily reliant on canned beans, rice, quinoa and salad. When she is really strapped, she has to rely on friends for meals. Crystal has described her day-to-day life as exhausting, chaotic and even traumatic. In one incident, Crystal witnessed a neurodivergent student throwing a 10-pound weighted ball around the classroom, which forced her to step in and calm down a roomful of students in tears while another education assistant put her body in the way to stop the student from hurting anyone.

As a library tech, Crystal interacts with up to 620 students on a daily basis. Every day she is at risk of catching COVID. Last year she caught COVID three times and had to isolate for at least a week each time. She used all her 11 sick days and was forced to go on short-term disability to cover the rest. She feels she is past her limit, stressed beyond belief, but cannot even afford to take a day off for her mental health because she’s used every one of her sick days.

Crystal loves her work and doesn’t want to do any other job. She feels so fortunate that she has the opportunity to meet these students so young and watch them learn and grow, that she can share with them her love of reading, of learning and a curiosity for the world around us. She strongly believes that students deserve respect, kindness, compassion and, most importantly, a safe and equitable learning environment.

The stress that is caused by this government’s willingness to take away her right to bargain is one more reason for Crystal to want to leave the field altogether. She is already on the brink and cannot fathom having to continue in this field without support from the government.

Nicola is an educational assistant with a lengthy list of responsibilities. She provides behavioural support, medical support, toileting, lifting children, yard duty and other daily tasks. Lately she has been integral in supporting children’s mental health in schools, which we know has suffered greatly throughout the pandemic.

Instead of supporting educational assistants like Nicola, this government has cut funding and prevented new hiring. Nicola says that this significant lack of staffing has made it impossible for children to access all the experiences that make school valuable for our children. For example, she knows that many clubs have been cut. Field trips have been cut because the support isn’t available to make them possible. Children who are struggling and need extra support are not able to access it because, again, the support just isn’t there.

If a staff member is sick and requires a day off, the lack of staffing prevents jobs from being filled, meaning children are often left without the assistance they require. Additionally, if a staff member is pulled from one child to work with another, the staffing shortage means that there will be a child in the building left without support, just because one child may need it more than another.

A fair living wage is not only very important to Nicola and her co-workers but also much deserved. They need more support to help them through the day, so that our children are getting the most out of their experience and are accessing all that is out there to help them reach their full potential.

Another education worker reached out to me with concerns for her safety in the classroom. With so many staffing shortages, she and her colleagues are finding themselves in vulnerable positions, especially during incidents of violence. Workplace violence has become so normalized for her, and she is begging the government for more support. She shows up to support her students who struggle with aggression because they deserve support. It’s important work, and if they aren’t there for these students, nobody will be. All she wants is to be fairly compensated for this work and have the security of knowing that there will be other staff to help when she needs them. She does not feel supported by this government, and now even less so with their unwillingness to meet the basic needs of education workers across the province.

Sharon reached out to my office yesterday to express her concern for the state of our education system in Ontario. Sharon’s grandson has ADHD and could not be in school without the help of education workers. She recognizes how important their role is and can see the change in her grandson when he does not have that support. Sharon fears what may happen if this government continues to exploit education workers, and what effect this may have on her son, who is dependent on his classroom support worker.

Recently, she learned that her grandson’s worker earns just above minimum wage. As more and more education workers leave the field for jobs that pay a living wage, Sharon knows that it’s only a matter of time before her grandson’s education worker decides to do the same.

Christina called my office yesterday to express her frustration over the minister’s back-to-work legislation. She has never before, in her life, called a government office, but she is beyond frustrated with the decisions of this government. She described this legislation as a complete overstep and an abuse of power. Her son relies on a tutor to keep up in school because he doesn’t have the one-on-one support that he needs in the classroom. She cannot fathom why this minister feels that a $200 support for tutoring is more important than providing education workers with an adequate wage increase and support. That $200 will provide her son with a couple of weeks of one-on-one tutoring, but at what cost? The potential of losing more education workers who could provide him the support every single day or relying on education workers that are overworked and overburdened with too many students’ needs will be more harmful to her son’s experience in the classroom.

Lisa is an ECE in my riding of Ottawa West–Nepean, and she told my office that she loves her career and her students. However, she cannot support her family with the wage she earns as support staff. If she didn’t have the support that she does from her parents, she would not be able to keep a roof over her head, or feed and clothe her children. As it stands, Lisa sits around 15% below the cost of living in Ontario. The reasonable offer that this government has proposed will have her sitting somewhere between 20% to 22% below the cost of living in four years. She does not want to strike, but she feels she has to in order to support her family.

The minister’s decision to invoke the “notwithstanding” clause impedes her right as a worker to negotiate a fair wage. Lisa would like to remind this government that on the playground, this is referred to as bullying, and she does not want to be bullied into an unfair contract.

Another Ontarian has expressed her frustrations over the difficult decision that she has been facing as guardian to a child with autism who was supposed to start school in September. She says that she fully supports education workers, but is terrified to send her child to a school with so few supports in place. She has been going back and forth on whether she should send him to school or not—a decision that no Ontarian should have to make. We owe it to our children to provide them with the resources they need for a successful school experience.

Jason, whom I mentioned earlier, has been grateful for the role of EAs in his children’s learning, but he’s seen first-hand the decline in availability of in-class EAs and resources. His children have suffered as a result of absent EAs because so many have left the field altogether due to burnout. In school, his middle child began to experience mild depression, anxiety and learning challenges. They’ve tried to work with the school administration to obtain additional support, but had very little luck because the school did not have adequate support for his child’s educational and mental health needs. Jason had no other choice but to find an alternate school for his son.

His youngest child, who is currently enrolled in middle school with the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, has also experienced a delayed response in obtaining adequate classroom support. There are no education support staff in his classroom, and only one resource teacher available to respond to his learning needs. There are hundreds of other children in this same position.

Now Jason’s family is paying out of pocket for external support to assist his children, and during a time when the cost of living is already so high, this added cost is cutting into his family’s grocery budget.

These parents and education workers are absolutely clear: If the government continues on this path of enforcing a low-wage policy and fundamentally disrespecting our education workers, it will be to the detriment of our children. Workers cannot continue in these conditions, and that means our kids will be forced to go without the caring adults and the fundamental supports they depend on.

Of course, this government is not the first government to attack our education system and the people who work there. They’re continuing a tradition set by the previous Liberal government, and that’s part of what has gotten us into this mess.

The Liberal government, supported by the Conservatives, passed Bill 115, trampling on the rights of education workers to collectively bargain—a charter-protected right, I might add—and imposing a collective agreement that froze workers’ wages.

The Ontario Superior Court of Justice recently ruled that Bill 115 “substantially interfered” with collective bargaining rights of education workers. The passing of this unconstitutional legislation resulted in the province being ordered by a court to pay out hundreds of millions of dollars in order to remedy their trampling of fundamental rights. These remedies, of course, do not recoup the lost income, benefits and rights of education workers in Ontario, but they show how expensive trampling on the rights of Ontarians can be.

In 2014 the Liberals, apparently thinking this was a fun game to play with people’s lives, froze wages again for two years—four years, no wage increase.

Workers then had a couple of years of marginal wage increases, but in 2018, as we all know, the Conservatives came to power, and I guess they admired the Liberal approach so much that in 2019 they passed Bill 124, capping the wages of education workers once again.

So education workers have faced 10 years of consistent and sustained suppression and restraint on their wages from Liberals and Conservatives.

From 2012 to the end of 2021, wage increases for Ontario education workers have totalled only 8.8%. During that same period, total inflation was 19.5%. This means that these education workers, the lowest-paid education workers, took a 10.7% wage cut as a result of the government’s wage freezes since 2012.

And now, with inflation running at over 8%, with an ongoing cost-of-living crisis, this government has come to the bizarre conclusion that the lowest-paid education workers, who are already using food banks, are only worth a nickel an hour more.

Unfortunately, Speaker, we’ve seen this movie before. The government’s Bill 124 also imposed a wage cap on health care workers, showing them utter contempt and disrespect while they worked so hard each and every day of the past few years to keep us safe and healthy. We’re seeing the outcome of that wage policy, with health care workers leaving the profession in droves. They are burnt out, tired of being disrespected, frustrated that they can’t do the job that they love, the job that they want to do properly. And the result is that we have people waiting 12 to 20 hours in the emergency room, waiting 30 hours in the hospital to be admitted to a bed. We have pediatric ICUs that are life and limb only. We have cancelled and delayed surgeries and procedures, not because we don’t have the operating rooms but because we don’t have the nurses to staff them.

I guess the government looks at that outcome and thinks, “Job well done. Let’s try that with the education system next”—because that is what they are doing here. They are taking a system that is already starting to experience strain, and they are deliberately driving it closer to the brink.

In fact, this is straight out of the Conservative privatization playbook. First, you starve the public system of the funding it needs to do its job. Then you suppress workers’ wages so they are earning less than their private sector counterparts. You burn out the staff with your deliberate underinvestment. And then they start to leave their profession to find other jobs that pay more or are less stressful. And that trickle of departing workers eventually becomes a raging river, because as the government makes the system deliberately worse, the workers who are now paid less have to do more, but the more that their fellow workers leave, the more they have to do to make up for that gap, which feeds the cycle, until you’re faced with an inevitable crisis because of the actions of the government.

Then, when the public system finally starts to break at the seams because the workers are burnt out, the system that used to be world-class has now become a shadow of its former self. That’s when the Conservatives say, “How did this happen? No one could have predicted this result. The only way to solve this problem that we’ve caused is now to privatize the service.” And we know what privatized public services look like because they’ve done it before. It means poorer quality services. It means low wages. It means that people lose out to profit.

Now, let’s compare that playbook with what the Conservatives are proposing here and what this bill will actually mean for our education system and our kids. Legislating poverty wages will mean that school boards will be unable to recruit and retain staff. This will lead to staffing shortages and cuts to services for students. Cutting job security means that burnout will increase the amount of staff and only make the staffing and retention crisis even worse. No new funding for additional staff means there will be no improvement to services for children and that the quality of their education will deteriorate. It also means that already overworked education workers will now be expected to do even more unpaid work, which leads to further burnout and to more staff leaving the profession. No agreement that casual workers be paid the same as permanent employees will only worsen the problem of recruitment and retention—you might be detecting a theme here, Speaker. Not only is the government doing all of this, but they’re invoking the “notwithstanding” clause as they do it, acknowledging that they are trampling on charter-protected rights of Ontarians and flat-out admitting that they don’t care. Cross the Premier and he will take away your rights: That’s the message here.

The challenge we face as a province is clear: Is this a bill that will make our kids’ education better? No. In fact, it will lead to a staffing crisis similar to the one we’re experiencing in the health care sector. Will it provide students with more supports? No, because burnout and staffing cuts will lead to fewer supports and fewer opportunities for Ontario students, not more. And lastly, will it make sure every child gets access to a world-class public education? Absolutely not. In fact, it ensures that kids who need support the most will get the least.

The minister’s got three days, Speaker. The clock is ticking. CUPE is it at the table today. The minister should withdraw this shameful legislation and sit down at the bargaining table today with CUPE and negotiate a deal that will protect and strengthen our kids’ education and support these invaluable workers who support our kids every single day.

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?

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

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

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?

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 respect our workers, which is why we’re increasing their pay every year over the course of this contract—10% over four years—and maintaining benefits, sick leave and, of course, pensions, the gold standard in Canada. They are paid the highest in Canada, $27 an hour on average. We’re increasing their pay. We’ll continue to do so because we know they play a critical role in our schools.

Part of our program is to hire 1,800 more education workers and roughly 800 to 900 more teachers. That’s what we’re doing because we know education quality is paramount and we know learning loss is real. We’ve expanded tutoring—$175 million. We’ve hired more staff. We’ve expanded training.

None of this really matters unless these kids are in class. That’s why we brought forward this legislation. Really, it’s a last resort to ensure kids have the stability they deserve.

The member opposite suggested there’s another way. Yes, of course, the government could have—as the New Democrats have, I guess, officially tabled as their position—not introduced legislation, hoped for the best on Thursday, and if the government of the day didn’t acquiesce to a nearly 50% increase in compensation, there would have been a strike on Friday. How is that good for kids, for parents and for the communities that depend on our publicly funded schools?

We have done this as a last resort because, regrettably, the union wouldn’t withdraw the strike for Friday, and we don’t believe kids should be out of school. We believe these children have been through enough. Enough is enough. Parents know this to be true. We’re standing up to provide the stability every child in the province deserves.

Mr. Speaker, we are acting to keep kids in school. That’s why we brought forth a bill today to do that in response to CUPE’s decision to strike on Friday, which we think is really regrettable and, frankly, unfair to these kids, who have been through so much difficulty.

We do agree with the member that we value these workers. It’s why, in this contract, we’re suggesting and proposing up to 10% over four years in increase to their pay and benefits, and maintaining their pension program and 131 days of sick leave. We’ve done this deliberately because we recognize the critical role they play in our schools.

We’re going to be hiring 1,800 more education workers and up to 1,800 more teachers in our schools to support our kids.

While we increase funding and increase staffing in our schools, the first principle of helping these kids catch up, really, is that they’ve got to be in school, Friday and every day. That’s why we brought this bill in reaction to CUPE’s decision to strike, and we hope they will withdraw this needless and unfair strike on children and return to work with government to get a better deal, a better way that respects all players but keeps these kids in the classroom.

Interjection: Online.

Mr. Speaker, we want to see none of that transpire. We want these kids to stay in school, to stay calm and focused on learning, and to not be impacted by needless disruption, when one puts their own interest ahead of the collective interest of kids.

We are going to fight hard to keep kids in school, and we hope the members opposite will join us in supporting stability for all children in the province of Ontario.