We are committed to keeping children in class. We made a clear commitment to the people of this province that we will stand up and ensure kids are in school without disruption right to June. Nothing should get in the way of that commitment. Mr. Speaker, we gave the union an opportunity, and with great regret they said no. They are going to proceed with the strike on Friday and impose further hardship on the children we all represent.

We have to speak for kids in this debate. We have to give them a voice in this discussion. We have to ensure they are able to be in the classroom learning the fundamentals they have missed over the past two to three years, keeping in mind, Speaker, that just three years ago they faced union-driven strikes and then a global pandemic. We are going to do everything possible, as we have to date, to ensure children remain in class—

Interjection.

When you hear these stories of individual children and the plight they have faced over the past years, it is incumbent on everyone in this Legislature to ensure that they are in a classroom, supported, loved and cared for by their educators and with their friends. Our plan to catch up is premised on keeping them in the classroom. So yes, Speaker, we are going to stand up and ensure children remain in school without disruption right to June.

Interjection.

Mr. Speaker, when we gave the union an offer to avert a strike, to withdraw their commitment to strike on Friday, they regrettably doubled down on their demand for a nearly 50% increase in pay—a $19-billion increase for the taxpayer when applied sector-wide, because we know whatever we do with education workers becomes the minimum standard with our educators and those unions. So, Speaker, we brought forth a reasonable offer that preserves in-class learning and protects the rights of children to learn. We’re going to continue to do everything possible to keep kids in the class.

But what we will not accept is a strike on children after this global pandemic and recent strikes by the unions just two to three years ago. Children should be in the classroom, and our government will do everything possible and take the action that families want to keep their kids in front of their teachers in the classroom in every region of this province.

Interjections.

Did somebody say, “Why would you be getting up at 5 a.m. to get your kids to school?” Oh, let me tell you. News flash: A lot of people and a lot of people in jobs like this have to travel a really long way and drop their kids at daycare and figure out all kinds of complicated arrangements. And, as I mentioned before, they actually have to work more than one job—half of them—in order to be able to do the job they really love, which is the one that involves nurturing and caring for our children. So they’re not going to be able to watch the discussions and the debate, because this government is going to be in such a rush to take away their collective bargaining rights.

This government is going to rush this legislation through—

Interjection.

The solutions—

Interjections.

As I was saying, this really is about transparency and accountability and rushing through legislation that’s really important.

As my colleague said, what are you rushing it through for? It’s probably going to get overturned in the courts. The Liberals learned that lesson the hard way. The people of this province paid for it. This is where this government is headed once again.

I am asking the government to reconsider this. Here in the NDP official opposition we are asking the government to reconsider this.

I’ve got to tell you, Mr. Speaker, the other thing I’ve been hearing a lot—and I’m not kidding when I say I go to events and stuff and people say, “Thank you. Thank you, MPP, thank you to the NDP caucus for standing up for our kids. Thank you for being the only ones who stood up and asked this government to reduce class sizes, to invest in classrooms.” They say, “Please, our classrooms need more educational assistants, not fewer. We need smaller class sizes. We need more supports.”

This government is going to rush through legislation to deny those very workers their collective bargaining rights, to prevent them from being able to negotiate a fair wage increase at a time when we’re already losing those workers. We’re losing those workers every single day. We are in a crisis. Even if this government wanted to hire more than two educational assistants for a school, like it is in many schools in this province, to support all those kids who need that support, even if they wanted to hire more than that, they won’t be able to soon because nobody is going to want to work in this field.

The people who are educational assistants, and I think—I look to my colleague here, who has been a teacher. When you talk to the people who have actually been teachers in our caucus and around this province, they will tell you how absolutely essential it is, the work that educational assistants do. The educational assistants I meet will tell you that they do it because they love the kids, because they know how important the work is and how much those children need them. But if it also means that they have to juggle three jobs to keep doing that work, which is the reality of many educational assistants across this province, at some point, things break. Those are the voices that need and deserve to be heard in committees. It’s those workers who want to be able to sit here and listen to this debate of this legislation and who this government is going to exclude by fast-tracking the legislation. It’s deeply anti-democratic.

And I don’t know why I’m surprised. I’m not surprised, because this government, from day one, like the Liberal government before them, frankly, and the Conservative government before that, have been doing away with any ability of the opposition to provide opportunity for light to be shone on legislation, for us to have proper debate and accountability around legislation in this place. They’ve done everything they could to weaken that role.

I don’t know about you, Mr. Speaker, but I know many of them were elected, like I was, as a member of the opposition first. And I would think they would understand how important it is to have an opportunity for all voices to be heard but particularly the voices of the people who are most often forgotten, the people on the margins of our system but who really keep everything going. When I think of the educational system, it’s these workers—these CUPE workers, these educational workers—who are the backbone of that system.

The Minister of Education may stand up here and talk about how this is all about keeping kids in school. Do you know what this is about? This is about holding down the wages and benefits of the lowest-paid workers in our education system. And what this is going to do is drive down the quality of public education, and it’s going to mean that more and more of those education workers can no longer afford to work in that system. We saw that happen south of the border. We saw that happen for decades south of the border, and do you know what ended up happening, Mr. Speaker? It resulted in governments bringing in other solutions: private options, charter schools, voucher systems—

With that, Mr. Speaker, I’m going to have a seat.