I’d like to welcome to the Legislature, in the members’ gallery today, representatives of the Canadian Automobile Association, who are here today for their advocacy day. Welcome to Queen’s Park, and I look forward to meeting with you this afternoon.

I’d like to welcome OSSTF members Christine Musson, Christina Wagner, Andrea Loken, Wendy Bonnell, Erin Leonard, Colin Matthew, vice-president of OSSTF Martha Hradowy, with a special shout-out to the two district 9 members from Windsor, Christine and Christina. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

I would like to welcome the team from Western University, here today for their Queen’s Park advocacy day. I’d like to introduce Dr. Alan Shepard, the president and vice-chancellor; Grace Parraga, professor and graduate chair in the department of medical biophysics; Sophie Helpard, director of government relations; Florentine Strzelczyk, the provost and vice-president, academic; Keith Gibbons, chair of the board of governors; Peter White, executive director of government relations and strategic partnerships; John Doerksen, vice-provost, students; Opiyo Oloya, associate vice-president, equity, diversity and inclusion; Althea Blackburn-Evans, chief communications officer; and Sara Ridout, coordinator of government relations.

I would like to welcome everyone to the reception tonight, which will be taking place at Mercatto on College from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

That’s exactly why we want to keep them in class. We’ll do whatever it takes to keep students in class, where they belong. We want parents to know that we’re doing everything we can to make sure their child doesn’t miss a single day of class. We’re at the table with a fair and reasonable offer—as a matter of fact, very fair; the best in the country—and yet, the union refuses to withdraw the strike notice.

Mr. Speaker, we don’t want to be here. No one wants to be here and have to do this. We have heard from countless parents, endless parents. As a matter of fact, there has never been an issue in four and a half years that I have had more emails about, saying, “Make sure my kids stay in the class,” every single day. We know how difficult the pandemic has been on our children, but we need CUPE to withdraw the strike threat. I’m not going to tolerate students being out of the classroom for even one day. The NDP and the Liberals—

Interjections.

Our offer maintains the most generous—I’m going to repeat that—the most generous pension and benefit plan in the entire country, including 131 paid sick days, unheard of anywhere. We are seeing school boards confirm that the doors will be closed if CUPE goes on strike. I can assure you, Mr. Speaker, we won’t let that happen. Nothing matters more right now than ensuring the students remain in the classroom.

We’re investing over $26.6 billion in public education, the single largest investment in Ontario history, Mr. Speaker. Education funding for this—

Interjections.

Speaker, to the Premier: Over the last few days, many Ontarians have written to New Democrat MPPs to share stories of the role that education workers play in supporting kids in our schools. The common thread in all of them is that, despite the best efforts of this government to starve our education system of resources, the quality of kids’ education is being protected because of the hard work of education workers and teachers.

At the end of the day, it’s our kids who are going to pay the price if this Premier and his minister don’t get back to the bargaining table. Will the government commit to scrapping Bill 28 and bargaining in good faith today?

Interjections.

There’s a lot of great Ottawa folks in the building today. I want to shout out Sue Rab and Richard Brown, from OSSTF Local 25.

We often, in this House, stand on our feet when former members of this House come, but I want to shout out Julian Ovens, who’s with us today in the members’ gallery, who served at least three federal ministers as chief of staff. His daughter, Gabrielle Ovens, is part of our page crew this week. Julian, it’s really great to see you today. Gabrielle, thanks for your work for this House. Thank you for your work for the country.

I want to welcome OSSTF as well. In particular, from Sudbury, across from me here, I see our D3 professional student services personnel president, Dan Watson, and district 3 president, Eric Laberge. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

I want to welcome Cassandra Beach, the mother of our amazing page Mae, who is doing bring your mom to work day today, instead. Thank you.

That may have been the longest five minutes in the history of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, but I want to thank the members for their indulgence to allow the members to introduce their guests.

To reply, the Premier.

The supplementary question.

I’d like to welcome OSSTF local members: Seth Bernstein, Vincent Bisasor, Chris Chandler, Derik Chica, Ricardo Harvey, Danica Izzard, Mark Kissel, Paulina Monlouis, Michael Platt and Michelle Teixeira and all the other OSSTF members, as well as all the other guests here who are joining us today.

I’d like to thank all of the OPSEU health professionals who came to Queen’s Park today. It’s a long list; bear with me: Megan North, Ashley Palmer, Betty Palmieri, Nicole Parro, Rohan Quest, Gayatri Samaroo, Kristyn Silver, Chrisy Tremblay, Joel Usher, Christa Walker, Elizabeth Watts, Rob Ziegler, Noemi Khondo, Kelsea Mahabir, Laurie Nancekivell—who is their vice-president—Brenda Allan, Adrian Balojin, Sandra Blancher, Carole Breeze, Keri-Ann Brunson, Melissa Coenraad, Samantha Green, Daniel Hahn, Coleen Houlder, Gail Kelly, Sara Labelle—in charge of health care—Elizabeth Leasa, Steven McCaw, Jordan McTavish and Angela Muraca. Forgive the French accent. They are all nice people.

Thank you for the applause, and thank you, Speaker.

To the Premier—my question is for you. Jennie, a local parent, told my office—and I’m going to share her story: “I am one of those parents whose child relies on ... absolutely incredible education workers.” They have “to be toileted, supervised during meals (to prevent choking), to safely walk” down the stairs and up the stairs, “have medications administered” and yes, the child still has to learn.

Speaker, this government gave 88% of their PC MPPs a $16,600 raise this June. My question to the Premier: Will this government be willing to actually give education workers a raise that they deserve and match it to inflation?

I’m going to share another story with you, Premier—and through the Speaker. Carrie, another teacher, tells my office: “One of our ECEs held a girl in her lap until her grandpa came” because she was throwing up “in a garbage can. The ECE refused to leave” this little girl, because she was scared and nervous.

Carrie then tells me, “I watched our other ECE march down the kinders to the library because they had to evacuate the classroom while their education assistant was controlling a friend who was having a moment,” or episode. “All the littles had adorable beautiful smiles” on their faces as they passed the teacher’s window and gave her a wave. “They didn’t know anything was wrong” in their classroom, despite the fact that there was. A caretaker then marched down the hallway with a bucket in hand to clean up the mess on the floor because four students got sick that same day. All of that happened within a 24-hour period.

Speaker, will this government show a fraction of the emotional intelligence that we see education workers exercise every single day and return to the bargaining table and give them a fair deal?

I would like to welcome Carlos Santander, Matthew Roy and Gordon Robitaille, who have come here from Thunder Bay. Gordon had to do an extra hour to get here from Nipigon. Welcome.

I’d like to acknowledge Dr. Charles Frank from the Ontario Dental Association, from my hometown of Tecumseh, who is here today.

I have many friends in the audience in the chamber today. I wish to acknowledge the Ontario Dental Association, the OPSEU health professionals division, Western University, the Scleroderma Society of Ontario and OSSTF. Thank you, and welcome to you all.

On behalf of the official opposition, I’d like to welcome all the amazing members of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, including president Karen Littlewood. Thanks for all the hard work that you do for our students, and thanks for coming here today to share your stories with us.

J’aimerais aussi dire un mot de bienvenue aux représentants de l’AEFO. Merci pour votre travail important, aussi.

The member for Davenport will come to order. The member for Toronto–St. Paul’s will come to order. The member for Ottawa Centre will come to order.

The Premier has the floor.

Interjections.

So once again, if you repeatedly ignore the request of the Speaker to come to order, I will move to warnings, and we know what happens after that if you ignore that, okay?

Start the clock. Supplementary.

Final supplementary?

The member will withdraw his unparliamentary comment.

Interjections.

I will ask the member once again to withdraw his unparliamentary comment.

Mr. Tabuns was escorted from the chamber.

Interjections.

Interjection.

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MPP West was escorted from the chamber.

Interjections.

Interjection.

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Ms. Stiles was escorted from the chamber.

Interjection.

Interjection.

Interjection.

MPP Andrew was escorted from the chamber.

My question is to the Premier.

While this government is actively stripping away the collective bargaining rights from workers, we’ve been listening to education workers in my community of Niagara Falls, in Fort Erie and in Niagara-on-the-Lake.

In Niagara, we spoke to Carrie, a school secretary who has been a loyal worker for nearly 20 years. She still makes under $39,000 a year, and she has a second job just to make ends meet. She even considered getting a third job because of the increased cost of food, gas and housing.

Does this Premier think that education workers should have to work two extra jobs in order to avoid using food banks?

Let me remind the member opposite that children in this province should have rights too, and they should be in school in this province.

Mr. Speaker, we have been clear—

Interjections.

We have an obligation to ensure stability. We asked the union to bring forth a proposal that withdraws a strike on Friday. We gave them multiple opportunities to do so, and yesterday night, at 10 p.m., hearing from the mediator and through the mediator—

Interjection.

Interjection.

Interjection.

Interjection.

Mr. Speaker, so long as the union regrettably proceeds with this unacceptable strike, the government will have no choice but to proceed with legislation to avert a strike and keep these kids in the classroom, where they belong.

Interjection.