Last Thursday our government, under the leadership of the Premier and the Minister of Finance, tabled the 2023 budget, Building a Stronger Ontario. It’s a serious budget for serious times, a plan that navigates ongoing global economic uncertainty with a responsible, targeted approach to help people and businesses today while laying a strong fiscal foundation for future generations. It’s a plan for building a strong province as well as a stronger Niagara, a plan that is working.

Highlights for the Niagara region include:

—expanding GO rail service to Niagara by increasing current service levels and building four new and improved stations, as well as supporting local transit-oriented communities to build more attainable housing;

—twinning the Garden City Skyway over the Welland Canal in St. Catharines; and

—supporting the redevelopment of the West Lincoln Memorial Hospital as well as the new South Niagara Hospital.

Speaker, I could go on. The bottom line is this: Our government and our government alone is building a strong Ontario, whether it’s more mental health funding, more new schools, more new local roads and bridges, more supportive housing, more jobs for auto workers, more nurses for our hospitals or more support for our rural economic development.

A strong Ontario means a strong Niagara, and this plan is a plan that supports the people of Niagara and our province, today and into the future. Together, let’s work to support and pass Bill 85 as soon as possible so that we can get to work and continue building a stronger Ontario.

Our schools are facing significant cuts to the supports our children need next year, yet this government’s new budget continues to massively underspend on education. If the government had just kept up with inflation since 2018, they would be spending $2.5 billion more on education. That doesn’t even take into account the additional supports our kids need because of the pandemic.

Will the government finally invest in our children, reimburse school boards for their COVID expenses and provide the stable and adequate funding our children need?

I want to thank the member for Beaches–East York for her question. As I said earlier in the House, over the last two years, we’ve seen housing starts in Ontario the likes that we had not seen in over 30 years. In fact, on the rental piece, as I said earlier, it’s the highest amount of starts in Ontario’s history last year.

We need everyone, all three levels of government, to work together.

I want to specifically talk about the member for Beaches–East York because she repeatedly, as a member of Toronto city council, voted to exempt development charges on affordable housing, supporting the city of Toronto’s Open Door Affordable Housing Program. I want her to take the same principles from when she was at Toronto city council and apply them to support our measures in More Homes Built Faster, because that’s exactly what we need to do.

We need to incent non-profit housing. We need to incent more rental opportunities—

“The Ontario Alliance to End Homelessness is pleased to see this significant investment in homelessness services from the government of Ontario. This is a much-needed increase in funding to help address the homelessness crisis affecting municipalities throughout the province.”

Again to the member, I hope she continues to support our budget and support those initiatives to help prevent—

I thank the member opposite for the question. I am very proud to confirm that the budget increases funding in the public education school system by $2.3 billion, of which $1.3 billion specifically in baseline education funding is up from the year prior, Mr. Speaker. This year, compared to last year, it’s up $671 million. Every single year, we’ve increased funding.

In fact, under the Premier’s leadership, funding is up, compared to the former Liberals, by 27% in the Ministry of Education. That is an investment in children.

We’ve hired 8,000 more staff. We have 200 more principals. We have another 800 more teachers.

Mr. Speaker, we just announced a $15-billion investment to build new schools after the systematic closure of schools under the former Liberals. We’re going to con-tinue to invest and ensure these kids get back on track.

Mr. Speaker, the special education budget this year is up to $3.2 billion. That is the highest level it has ever been in our province’s history. I assure the member opposite that for children with intellectual and developmental disabilities, we are working together across the ministry to ensure they have the supports, the resources and the staff in place to succeed in our schools.

The only thing historic about this government’s education spending, Speaker, is their inability to get the funding out the door.

Under this government, kids with accessibility needs are already not getting the support they need. And now the government is forcing thousands of kids with autism into school with no transition plans and no additional resources for schools, which means already inadequate supports are going to have to be stretched even further.

How are we going to keep these kids safe? How are we going to help them succeed? Where is the plan? And where are the resources to make sure that every child can thrive in our schools?

I’m pleased to rise today to present this petition to stop the cuts and invest in our schools, which our students deserve. I’d particularly like to thank the parents and community of Jack Miner Senior Public School, which was just one of many schools where these signatures were collected.

The petition reads:

“Whereas the Ford government cut funding to our schools by $800 per student during the pandemic period, and plans to cut an additional $6 billion to our schools over the next six years;

“Whereas these massive cuts have resulted in larger class sizes, reduced special education and mental health supports and resources for our students, and neglected and unsafe buildings;

“Whereas the Financial Accountability Office reported a $2.1-billion surplus in 2021-22, and surpluses growing to $8.5 billion in 2027-28, demonstrating there is more than enough money to fund a robust public education system;

“We, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to:

“—immediately reverse the cuts to our schools;

“—fix the inadequate education funding formula;

“—provide schools the funding to ensure the supports necessary to address the impacts of the pandemic on our students;

“—make the needed investments to provide smaller class sizes, increased levels of staffing to support our students’ special education, mental health, English language learner and wraparound supports needs, and safe and healthy buildings and classrooms.”

I wholeheartedly endorse this petition, Speaker, will add my name it to and send it to the table with page Paul.

This is a petition to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario about stopping the cuts and investing in the schools, as students deserve.

“Whereas the ... government cut funding to our schools by $800 per student during the pandemic period...;

“Whereas these massive cuts have resulted in larger class sizes, reduced special education and mental health supports and resources for our students, and neglected and unsafe buildings;

“Whereas the” FAO “reported a $2.1-billion surplus in 2021-22, and surpluses growing to $8.5 billion in 2027-28, demonstrating there is more than enough money to fund a robust public education system;

“We, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to:

“—immediately reverse the cuts to our schools;

“—fix the inadequate education funding formula;

“—provide schools the funding” they need “to ensure” there are “supports necessary to address the impacts of the pandemic on our students;

“—make the needed” improvements and “investments to provide smaller class sizes” to our children.

I fully support this petition. I want to thank the Elementary Teachers of Toronto for collecting these signatures and sharing our concerns to stop the cuts and invest in our schools.

The member from Thunder Bay–Atikokan has been relentless in his advocacy for this initiative, and I’m happy to say that we are bringing vet education to your riding.

Speaker, I am always excited to stand up and talk about the important work that my ministry is doing to address the most pressing needs and support economic growth across this province. Budget 2023 has a ton of great investments for the post-secondary sector, such as 100 new undergraduate medical seats and funding to support their clinical education.

But our universities don’t just educate the human doctors of the future; we also train the amazing pet and farm animal doctors our province desperately needs. I’m thrilled to say that as part of budget 2023, our government announced funding for a new and long-awaited doctor of veterinary medicine program collaboration between Lakehead University and the University of Guelph. This joint veterinary program, which will focus on integration of human, animal and environmental health, will address the shortage of veterinarians in the province by creating an additional 80 new spots for students.

Veterinary medicine contributes well over a billion dollars per year to Ontario’s economy and supports over 7,000 jobs—that’s right, Speaker: 7,000 jobs. Through the addition of this program we will support the veterinary medicine sector across the province, while supporting the local economy in the communities across Ontario. This also gives students greater choice in where to study, helps develop a skilled workforce and will support the health of animals everywhere.

Ontario benefits when Ontario’s post-secondary institutions give students the skills they need to enter the workforce, ready to take on the jobs of today and tomorrow. As always, through hard work and a focused approach, we get it done for the people of Ontario and animal lovers everywhere.

It’s my honour to present this stack of following petitions which are to stop the cuts and invest in the schools our students deserve. It reads:

“Whereas the Ford government cut funding to our schools by $800 dollars per student during the pandemic period, and plans to cut an additional $6 billion to our schools over the next six years;

“Whereas these massive cuts have resulted in larger class sizes, reduced special education and mental health supports and resources for our students, and neglected and unsafe buildings;

“Whereas the Financial Accountability Office reported a $2.1-billion surplus in 2021-22, and surpluses growing to $8.5 billion in 2027-28, demonstrating there is more than enough money to fund a robust public education system;

“We, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to:

“—immediately reverse the cuts to our schools;

“—fix the inadequate education funding formula;

“—provide schools the funding to ensure the supports necessary to address the impacts of the pandemic on our students;

“—make the needed investments to provide smaller class sizes, increased levels of staffing to support our students’ special education, mental health, English language learner and wraparound supports needs, and safe and healthy buildings and classrooms.”

I fully support this petition, will affix my signature to it and deliver it with page Jonas to the Clerks.

This petition is from the Dewson Street Public School, which my children attended and which is represented by the honourable leader of the Ontario NDP.

“A petition to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from the Elementary Teachers of Toronto to Stop the Cuts and Invest in the Schools our Students Deserve.

“Whereas the Ford government cut funding to our schools by $800 per student during the pandemic period, and plans to cut an additional $6 billion to our schools over the next six years;

“Whereas these massive cuts have resulted in larger class sizes, reduced special education and mental health supports and resources for our students, and neglected and unsafe buildings;

“Whereas the Financial Accountability Office reported a $2.1-billion surplus in 2021-22, and surpluses growing to $8.5 billion in 2027-28, demonstrating there is more than enough money to fund a robust public education system;

“We, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to:

“—immediately reverse the cuts to our schools;

“—fix the inadequate education funding formula;

“—provide schools the funding to ensure the supports necessary to address the impacts of the pandemic on our students;

“—make the needed investments to provide smaller class sizes, increased levels of staffing to support our students’ special education, mental health, English language learner and wraparound supports needs, and safe and healthy buildings and classrooms.”

I fully support this petition. I will affix my signature and pass to page Jonas to take to the table.

It’s a great honour for me to rise today in the House and introduce this petition, which is entitled as follows:

“Petition to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from the Elementary Teachers of Toronto to Stop the Cuts and Invest in the Schools our Students Deserve.

“Whereas the Ford government cut funding to our schools by $800 dollars per student during the pandemic period, and plans to cut an additional $6 billion to our schools over the next six years;

“Whereas these massive cuts have resulted in larger class sizes, reduced special education and mental health supports and resources for our students, and neglected and unsafe buildings;

“Whereas the Financial Accountability Office reported a $2.1-billion surplus in 2021-22, and surpluses growing to $8.5 billion in 2027-28, demonstrating there is more than enough money to fund a robust public education system;

“We, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to:

“—immediately reverse the cuts to our schools;

“—fix the inadequate education funding formula;

“—provide schools the funding to ensure the supports necessary to address the impacts of the pandemic on our students;

“—make the needed investments to provide smaller class sizes, increased levels of staffing to support our students’ special education, mental health, English language learner and wraparound supports needs, and safe and healthy buildings and classrooms.”

Speaker, I’m honoured to sign this petition and I will be sending it with the great page Ethan from Ottawa Centre to the Clerks’ table.

I appreciate having the opportunity to stand and represent St. Paul’s community members who have signed, along with the Thorncliffe Park community—and it’s from ETFO.

“Petition to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from the Elementary Teachers of Toronto to Stop the Cuts and Invest in the Schools our Students Deserve.

“Whereas the Ford government has cut funding to our schools by $800 per student during the pandemic period, and plans to cut an additional $6 billion to our schools over the next six years;

“Whereas these massive cuts have resulted in larger class sizes, reduced special education and mental health supports and resources for our students, and neglected and unsafe buildings;

“Whereas the Financial Accountability Office reported a $2.1-billion surplus in 2021-22, and surpluses growing to $8.5 billion in 2027-28, demonstrating there is more than enough money to fund a robust public education system;

“We, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to:

“—immediately reverse the cuts to our schools;

“—fix the inadequate education funding formula;

“—provide schools the funding to ensure the supports necessary to address the impacts of the pandemic on our students;

“—make the needed investments to provide smaller class sizes, increased levels of staffing to support our students’ special education, mental health, English language learner and wraparound supports needs, and safe and healthy buildings and classrooms.”

I am deeply honoured to sign this petition.

Thank you to every student, every education worker, every teacher, every parent who is making our schools the best that they possibly can be, under hard circumstances.

I’m passing it to Ryan for the table.

I move that:

Whereas the independent Financial Accountability Office found that the government failed to allocate $600 million in COVID-19 response funds and underspent its education budget by $432 million in the 2022-2023 fiscal year; and

Whereas the funding provided to school boards has been inadequate to cover pandemic-related expenses; and

Whereas this has resulted in an estimated budget shortfall of at least $100 million for school boards across the province; and

Whereas school boards are proposing hundreds of staff layoffs due to this budget shortfall;

Therefore, the Legislative Assembly calls on the government to cover all pandemic-related expenditures for school boards, including the programs and infrastructure needed to support students following three years of learning disruption.

Speaker, on Thursday, this government failed students. Their budget failed education workers, and it failed parents. The Premier and members opposite failed Ontario’s public education system, and with that, they snatched away a bright and prosperous future from thousands, indeed, millions of kids across this province. This government gave us a budget with nothing meaningful for the public education system, its workers or its students.

It has been a really tough few years for schools. I think we all know that. The pandemic caused serious disruptions in learning. So many students across this province face learning difficulties and mental health challenges. But where was this government? They were missing in action—missing in action just when our kids needed them most. I was the education critic during the pandemic, so I know that school boards had to dip into their own reserves to meet expenses. The Premier and the education minister sat on $600 million in COVID-19 response funds. They underspent the education budget by $432 million in 2022-23.

And now that kids are finally back in school, we needed this government to ramp up those supports, not cut them down. But do you know what they did, Speaker? They took an axe to them. In fact, I’m going to quote Press Progress here. They say that the Premier made “a sneaky move to quietly cut education,” leaving school boards with a gaping hole of millions of dollars.

This government would have us believe that they’ve increased funding for schools. They’d really like us to believe that, but the truth is, they’ve shortchanged students, shortchanged teachers, shortchanged parents by $47 million.

Thanks to this government, more school boards are looking at funding shortfalls again this year. According to the independent Financial Accountability Office, this year alone there is a $400-million shortfall, and over the next six years that gap is going to grow by $6 billion. That’s $6 billion less for students, less for schools and for the workers who keep them running. This government is leaving kids without the supports they need to get back on track, and we all know what that means: It means cuts to staff, the education workers and teachers and educational assistants, the admin support our students and staff so desperately need. The repair backlog is going to continue to grow. It grew so much—a billion dollars under this government—poor ventilation, classrooms sweltering hot in warmer months and cold as ice in the winter, crumbling schools. It means no financial or human resource support to address the growing issue of violence in schools, no new investments in early childhood educators or mental health professionals. They say they plan to recruit more math coaches in schools, but they’re struggling to hire any educators whatsoever because they can’t compete when it comes to wages. And this means no new funding for base investments in education supports.

Without proper funding, schools are going to be forced to make really tough decisions, and they’re looking down the barrel right now of staff cuts and layoffs.

Here in Toronto, the Toronto District School Board is projecting the elimination of 522 staff positions, including 65 teachers, 35 special education workers, 35 child and youth workers, and 40 school-based safety monitors. I’ve got to tell you, Speaker, if I go to the doorstep and talk to parents in my community about that, they’re going to say, “What are they thinking?”

The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board is looking at cuts next year of between $9 million and $39 million.

Last year, school boards were already forced to make cuts due to underfunding. The Peterborough Victoria Northumberland and Clarington Catholic District School Board cut 65 support workers, including educational assistants. The Trillium Lakelands District School Board cut 77 educational workers, including EAs.

I’m going to say it again: All these cuts are resulting and will result in bad and worse, and worse still, outcomes for our kids and for the future of Ontario.

This government seems to have no issue finding public money when it comes to their insider friends, but when it comes to students in our province, they always seem to come up short.

School boards need the government’s support to give our kids a good education. It really is that simple. It’s a cliché for a reason that today’s youth are the future of tomorrow. What Ontario are we heading towards when we aren’t investing our highest dollars in students right now?

This government talks a lot, and they did in their budget, about the need to attract and recruit new workers, newcomers into Ontario. But how are we going to convince families to come to Ontario and to stay here if they see that we have a public education system in crisis? We talk a lot on both sides of this House about the situation in health care right now. The health care situation is absolutely a staffing crisis; it is a human resources crisis. But that’s what we’re seeing in education, as well.

I’m hearing from boards in the north who are saying that they can’t—small boards, and they’ve got 40-plus positions opened up for educational assistants. That means that our kids are not getting that support that they need—the kids who are struggling the most. We have kids in our public school system across this province still struggling with the challenges that they faced during the pandemic. We know that they’re having trouble, in many cases, catching up. We know that education workers are really struggling with the stress of the day-to-day work, because they face those struggles of those kids every day when they can’t help them. How heartbreaking is that? We’re hearing increasingly about boards going out and hiring unqualified staff because they can’t find qualified staff who will work for these wages in this situation.

There’s only one solution: You have to stop squirrelling away those dollars for a rainy day. The rainy day is here right now.

Speaker, this is why we put forward this motion today. I want to also acknowledge our amazing education critic, the member from Ottawa–Nepean, for her incredible work on this. That’s why we put this motion forward—to help our kids get back on track, to help all those families out there who are struggling.

I want to say to those families who are watching this today: We have got your back. We’re not going to let this government get away with this.

Do you know what they want to do, Speaker? Do you know where they want this to go? This government wants to do the same thing they’ve done with health care. They want to manufacture a crisis, where things get so bad that—what’s the solution? “Oh, yes, I’ve got this buddy over here. He’s got this plan. He’s got this private company that can come in and ride in and save the day.” They’re going to come up with some kind of voucher system. We’ve called it; I know it’s coming. That is not the answer. Look at the research. Look at what has happened around the world.

We have a public education system in this province that we are proud of. I moved to this province 30 years ago from Newfoundland. I stayed here and I raised my family here because we had a public education system that my kids could believe in, that I could believe in, that would be there when my kids were struggling, that would help lift them up when they fell down. We cannot afford to lose that system. We will be the laughingstock of the world.

This government needs to and should absolutely cover all pandemic-related costs for school boards. Parents across this province are looking at the Premier and they’re looking at the Minister of Education to step up; our children sure need them to.

You don’t win a seat like this without a few friends.

I was talking to my good friend Kevin Yarde the other day. Kevin Yarde is not imaginary—despite the efforts of some parties around here.

To get back to the topic at hand, I really do think we need a few more minutes to drill down on our government’s support to the province’s school boards.

The Toronto District School Board and the Toronto Catholic District School Board have been in the news lately, asking for additional financial assistance.

Not surprisingly, our friends in the NDP have been busy spreading the narrative that these cuts are somehow the fault of this government when, in fact, nothing could be further from the truth.

Would it surprise you to hear that the TDSB has enjoyed an increase of $38 million since the 2017-18 school year, even though its enrolment has fallen by 16,000 students? That’s right, Speaker: Funding for the TDSB went up at the same time that student enrolment went down substantially. This is the equivalent of removing the populations of the eight largest high schools in the city from the TDSB’s enrolment numbers. In fact, our government has increased per pupil funding in the TDSB by 6.2% since we were first elected in 2018. The same is true with the Toronto Catholic District School Board. The TCDSB—love the acronyms—has enjoyed an increase in funding of over $20.5 million since the 2017-18 school year, even though its enrolment decreased by 6,743 students during that period.

Let’s look at Hamilton for a moment. The Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board has enjoyed—

Interjection.

The Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board has enjoyed an increase of over $51.5 million in funding since the 2017-18 school year, and it has hired 228 additional staff since then. Similarly, the Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board has seen an increase of over $30 million in funding since 2017-2018, and it has hired 132 additional staff since then.

Then there is Ottawa. My friends in the NDP might be surprised to hear that the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board has enjoyed an increase of over $88.8 million in funding since 2017-18. It has hired an additional 667 staff, including 268 teachers, since that year. Meanwhile, the Ottawa Catholic School Board has seen an increase of $82 million in funding since 2017-18, and it has hired 394 new staff, including 33 teachers, over the past few years.

I realize that our friends in the NDP want to blame our government for anything that goes wrong in this province. I get that they’ve got a job to do, and they may have trouble assigning agency to large organizations with authority for the many schools under their purview, but I think an important point needs to be made.

At the end of the day, school boards are responsible to the families they serve and to the taxpayers who ultimately pay their bills. If certain school boards have trouble balancing their books, even though our government has consistently increased their funding and their own student enrolments have decreased, maybe it’s time for a look in the mirror. Maybe it’s time for certain boards to carefully review their expenditures, find some efficiencies that make sense and that do not impact the delivery of education, and take ownership of their decisions.

Speaker, the NDP motion calls on the government to essentially bail out any school boards that are having trouble balancing their budgets. I’m sure my New Democrat friends have heard of the concept of moral hazard, but please allow me to dive a bit deeper. Bailing out school boards that are unable to balance their books would of course feel like a huge slap in the face to the boards that were actually able to live within their means with the funds that our government provided to them. Most importantly, one-time bailouts to troubled boards would signal to all school boards that they do not have to be responsible with the business of how they conduct themselves. The message a bailout sends is simple: “If you run into financial trouble, don’t worry, because the province will take care of it.” I’m sorry, but that’s unacceptable. To borrow a phrase, that dog don’t hunt.

Speaker, our government is focused like a laser beam on helping students prepare for the jobs of tomorrow. We strongly believe in the power of public education to deal with the province’s shortage of skilled labour, and we are providing real support to our school board partners to make that happen. We’re delivering the largest tutoring program in Ontario’s history, funding substantial student mental health supports, building new schools after decades of school closures, and modernizing the curriculum to ensure it does a better job of meeting the ever-changing needs of the labour market. I’m proud of our government’s education record. We’re getting the job done.

Thank you for your indulgence.

I do appreciate this opportunity to rise and speak about our government’s record with respect to publicly funded schools—and I recall so vividly at the time the former critic, now the Leader of the Opposition, speaking and using rhetoric, posing the question rhetorically, “Where are all of these staff? Where are all these investments? Where are all these public health nurses? Where are all these EAs and educators and custodians and ventilation upgrades and HEPA filters we invested in?” That’s in the transcript from just six and 12 months ago, and yet here we are today.

For the members opposite, who spent the last two years suggesting the investments don’t exist, the people don’t exist in schools, the ventilation hasn’t been improved, only today to have the chutzpah to come in this House and urge us to reinstate the funding they never believed was in place in our school system—only the NDP could do that with a straight face. Only New Democrats could sit here and actually believe they have the credibility in this Parliament to communicate to the government, who increased the very funding in every single measurement—and now to proclaim the great saviours of public education, when their record is consistent, systematic opposition to the hiring of 8,000 net new staff. That is the NDP record, and a regrettable one, because maybe we disagree with the rate of increase—perhaps the opposition suggests going even further—but to have opposed every single investment, even incrementally, seems to defy the principle of more investment, more staffing, more resources.

Let’s reflect on where we started in 2018 in mental health, as a case study—an issue that I believe every member in this House cares about. The provincial Liberals, under Premier Wynne, were investing, in their election budget, the peak of spending, $18 million in mental health funding for schools. The funding today is at $90 million. It has been increased by 400%. I appreciate and am the first to acknowledge that we have to keep going, because the needs are rising, especially in a post-pandemic world—but the funding has been increased by 400%. It is the highest rate of increase we’ve seen in the federation, including when compared to New Democrats in BC.

Madam Speaker, when we look at areas like capital renewal, we are cognizant of the challenges in many schools in Ontario. There’s a reason why, in the first budget of this government, and reconfirmed in the Minister of Finance’s budget, there is nearly $15 billion in capital investments, so that all of your communities, from the most rural and remote parts of Ontario to the most urban here in Toronto—every one of us and our children—has access to a modern school. That’s an investment in building schools that meet the needs of Ontario, both for the current population and for future immigrant populations, which will come to this province at a quantum of 300,000 per year, every year. We’re going to be ready for that. We are investing in a modern school system. There are a hundred schools under construction today and 200 in the pipeline in this province, because we’re investing, because we recognize there is more need, because we recognize the former Liberals, for all the spending—that itself isn’t a virtue; it’s the outcomes, the measurements. It’s the benchmark of success with taxpayer dollars. They spent a lot and delivered so little for the people of Ontario—600 schools closed, failing outcomes in math and literacy. That isn’t a metric of success.

While I know the member from Waterloo and others feel that the most superior metric is just spending more money—we are doing that, but we also expect accountability from school boards, from unions, from all of us, to step up in the interest of children. The metric of success is our kids’ graduation rates—which, by the way, has been increased from 85% to 89% under our Progressive Conservative government. That’s a metric of success.

Youth employment—connecting young people from the classroom into the labour market—is a critical benchmark. We’re seeing more young people work in the private economy—making better jobs—with the recognition that we have to do more to help ensure they’ve got a high wage that leads them to an affordable home.

When it comes to investment in this budget—this item before the House is germane to the most recent budget, introduced by the Minister of Finance—the overall funding has been increased, yes, by $2.3 billion, but even when you look at baseline funding in education, it’s still up $1.3 billion from last year. I’m sorry; this is not a matter of debate, interpretation or ideological dispositions of left or right. It’s a matter of fact. The funding is up $1.3 billion.

We are following the money—to the member from Waterloo—and it’s going into classrooms in Waterloo region to a higher level than ever before in Ontario history. That’s a good outcome for families in Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge and, frankly, across Ontario.

Madam Speaker, look at the staffing. We have a relatively flat enrolment rate in Ontario. It has gone up and it has gone a bit down over the past four or five years in Ontario, but it has fundamentally been flat—roughly two million kids in the publicly funded school system. Yet when you look at the amount of staff, net staff—not through attrition; no cutesy interpretation. The amount of people working today when compared to 2017—the number is north of 7,000, for education workers.

One of the members from Ottawa spoke passionately about the needs of children with special education needs, those with exceptionalities in our schools. There are 7,000 additional education workers—EAs, custodians, social workers, or child and youth workers. All of these have been hired and funded—not somehow absent provincial investment; not in spite of, but because of our government’s investment.

There are 200 more principals and vice-principals working in our schools. There are roughly 800 front-line educators working within our schools. That is an investment in publicly funded schools. That is an investment to meet the challenge to ensure the next generation of young people are set up for success in our economy, so that they can succeed and dream and be ambitious and be able to own a home and achieve the full partnership of being a Canadian in this country.

Madam Speaker, just on ventilation alone—there is no province in Canada, during the pandemic, that put more investment in ventilation. We have more HEPA filtration in this province—if you aggregate every province and add it up, we still have more: 100,000 HEPA filters. We put $600 million in ventilation upgrades in every single one of your schools—not an exception to the rule. Every school was assessed. Every school was upgraded—the highest standards of MERV 13, which the science said, two years ago, was the best. We didn’t wait until September 2023. Folks, we did this in September 2021 and 2022 and kept it in place in 2023—$600 million in mechanical ventilation. We set a new standard in this country. If a school does not have mechanical ventilation—roughly 20% to 30% of Ontario schools in our respective ridings do not. We set a standard that no one has in this country—I’m not aware of it on the continent—where every classroom, every learning space, every gym, every cafeteria, every place where a child works, congregates, studies would have fitted-for-the-room HEPA filtration. Every kindergarten class, where kids were too young to wear masks, of course—we put two HEPA filters in it, sized to the room, to reduce the risk for those children. We stepped up.

I understand in this House—and the nature of our political system and of our democracy—it’s healthy to oppose. It is also healthy to acknowledge even incremental action that makes a difference in the lives of those we represent. I would expect, when we put 100,000 HEPA filters; $600 million in ventilation; when we hire staff; when we launch a new math strategy to literally, in budget 2023, double the amount of math coaches to emphasize numeracy, to strengthen training of our staff and get in there in those classrooms that need more intervention; when we are the only province in Canada to have a reading assessment strategy recommended by the Ontario Human Rights Commission—I would hope the NDP would be an advocate for us following the advice of the Ontario Human Rights Commission.

Here was one of the recommendations in the Right to Read report. It suggested the former Liberal curriculum did not follow the science of reading. They suggested that children with disabilities—to the member from Ottawa—are disproportionately left behind from the old language curriculum under former Premiers Wynne and McGuinty. The OHRC put out a damning report of that curriculum, saying you need to reform the curriculum and come up with a meaningful, wholesale reading-screening strategy for every child, from kindergarten to grade 2. That is what we did on the day the report was tabled.

Perhaps something counterintuitive: The Ontario Human Rights Commission put out the report on the Right to Read—the government moved immediately to adopt a new language curriculum, which will be in place this coming September. For those who have a face of a perplexed nature—Google. In addition, we also announced $25 million, then, to provide a screening tool. There’s only one province in Canada that’s going to screen every child—kindergarten, senior kindergarten, grade 1 and grade 2—at least once but up to two times a year with a common screening tool, with teacher training, which we’re providing. Over 400,000 kids are going to get this. There’s just no jurisdiction in the nation that’s doing it in nearly as expansive a fashion as Ontario. We’re not doing this to boast. We’re doing this because we recognize, after the pandemic, that literacy rates for young kids have regressed. I acknowledge the challenge. No one is suggesting that Ontario is some island in and of itself, when the entire Western world—the industrialized nations, east and west—have seen regression in fundamental math and reading skills. We’re not immune to that reality. We’re certainly not the worst in the federation, according to EQAO data. But we recognize there’s a problem, so we stepped up with a solution, with the full support of the Ontario Human Rights Commission. Even when we did that, something that perhaps is more ideologically inclusive to other members in the House—even then, we didn’t have a peep of support from any member, any critic. Education, disability—it didn’t matter. Silence. We can’t even recognize when we do the right things, even in a mere narrow or targeted fashion.

I am standing up in this House today with a simple message: The funding is there. The supports are there. The staffing is there. In a most granular way, we are stepping up—from literacy to numeracy to mental health to special education and to staffing.

We’ve heard this line before: “Where are the staff?” I have so many quotes from the member from Davenport—and with a great level of gratitude to a sparring partner for many years. But what I will simply say is, they’re there. Let’s not pretend that we didn’t double the amount of public health nurses. Let’s not pretend that we didn’t hire 7,000 more people. Those are not open to interpretation, colleagues. You can make the argument that you need more, but to hear the rhetoric—

Interjections.

I want to thank all the members for participating in the debate this afternoon on this opposition motion. And I want to be clear: Really, what this motion does is just simply ask the government to come through on funding that they haven’t covered for costs that boards had to take on during the pandemic just to keep up—just to barely keep up. Nearly five years into this government’s tenure, and I’ve got to tell you, everywhere I go around this province, life is not better for people. People are struggling. They really, really are. Whether you look at the situation in health care or in the workplace or—it’s just not better.

But for people with school-aged children right now, boy, that struggle has been so deep and so long. And it is our very littlest kids that are struggling the most. They’re struggling with really basic things like playing nicely together and sharing and learning to read, and we’re hearing this from those experts on the front line. And what this government is doing by failing to come through on this funding request by the school boards is going to mean that those little kids get less and less support, because it will mean cuts. And we heard members of the government caucus here today basically—I would consider it threaten boards.

And I’ve got to say, I want the government to show some responsibility here. I would really, really request and beg the government to please come through with this funding. Our kids need all the support you can provide right now. They don’t need excuses. They don’t need spin. They just need to make sure there are enough teachers, educational workers and educational assistants in the classroom to help them with the very most basic things. Thank you, Speaker. I hope I can count on their support.