My question is to the Premier. Families and advocates from across the province are taking action today to call for an end to the severe shortage of licensed child care spaces. Thousands of families are stuck on wait-lists. Centres are raising concerns about the ballooning costs of operating an underfunded system. A shortage of workers threatens the program. And while federal funding has increased, provincial child care funding has decreased since 2018.

Speaker, during an affordability crisis, why is this government underfunding the child care system and delaying the implementation of affordable child care across this province?

Speaker, experts are saying that the majority of Ontario’s early childhood educators and child care staff don’t qualify for the government’s recent announced wage supports. We have workers here today who say they can’t afford to make a living working in child care. The YMCA of Greater Toronto has just 16,000 kids enrolled in its 35,000 licensed spaces because they don’t have enough people to staff the spaces.

Will the minister commit to a salary scale starting at $25 per hour for all child care workers and $30 per hour for registered ECEs today, yes or no?

Interjections.

Speaker, let us not forget that the NDP and Liberals urged Ontario to sign the first deal with the federal government that would have omitted every single for-profit child care operator. They would have denied flexibility. They would have left $3 billion on the table and they would have had no review mechanism with the federal government to get more funding, as the member opposite urges us, to deliver for this sector. You can’t have it both ways.

You propped up the Liberal Party that increased child care fees by over 500%. And here we are, a Progressive Conservative government that, under our Premier’s leadership, cut fees by 50%, building 86,000 more spaces. The NDP voted against that progress for families and for working people. We will continue to build space. We’ll continue to cut fees. We will do so without the support of the NDP. That’s regretful because families in this province would want to believe we can come together to provide affordability for the people we represent.

In this government, we’re increasing fees, career-laddering opportunities, professional development. We’re launching an ad program. And in the words of the CEO of the College of Early Childhood Educators, “We are encouraged that the strategy seeks to address some of the long-standing systemic challenges that contribute to attrition in the profession and the current workforce crisis in child care.”

Mr. Speaker, we’re going to keep increasing spaces, decreasing fees, supporting the workers, increasing their wages every single year and doing better to support all families and the people in the province of Ontario.