Mr. Speaker, while members from Ottawa West–Nepean and Ottawa Centre literally sit on the sidelines on this issue and do what they do best—slacktivism and hashtag politics—this government is standing up for Ottawa families and getting the job done. We are the only party in this Legislature holding the school board and the consortia to account—and we have not only done that; we’ve launched an audit of the consortia, because we demand better. Speaker, 70% of all cancellations in the entire province are in the English public Ottawa school board. The French school board consortia, which has fewer students and a larger territory, is getting the job done—and not the English consortia. So I expect all members to stand up for Ottawa families—like the member from Carleton—to demand better. We provided an additional increase of funding of $1.8 million to that school board and, even still, with additional funding, they can’t get the job done. So we’re going to stand up and demand better for all Ottawa residents.

Let me just acknowledge the incredible leadership of the member from Carleton, who has been standing up and holding the school board and, particularly, OSTA to account.

We have taken action from the beginning.

We launched an audit of this board to understand the long-term fiscal sustainability, to make sure parents have reliable, dependable transportation services for their children.

We increased wages to $23 an hour—a significant lift in wages for workers, particularly for our bus drivers; we increased statutory benefits, providing 13%—which did not exist in the past; we’re paying for 10 statutory holidays, which didn’t exist in the past; we’re paying for four days of annual training and dry runs; we are increasing respect for the workers, which is why the Ontario school bus association has endorsed our plan.

For Ottawa, specifically, we provided $75 million, and yet they couldn’t get the job done. The French school boards in the same region, with larger territories and fewer kids, are able to do it. So we’ve now made a clear message to the Ottawa Student Transportation Authority and the school board that we’re auditing them, we’re expecting better, and we’re going to ensure the better delivery and more consistent delivery that the families of Ottawa deserve.