I want to thank the member from London West for a very thorough presentation.

The post-secondary sector has been chronically unfunded—wages for contract lecturers are minimum wage; people still paying off their PhDs; no time to share with students; doubling of class sizes; international students with the pressure of their families’ life savings riding on their backs; successive policies that have basically put the post-secondary sector on fire, and a bill offering up what I’d say is the equivalent of a hand-held fire extinguisher.

Do you see these conditions as being root causes of the mental health crises pervading the post-secondary sector?

I have a question for the member opposite.

You just mentioned the affordability crisis that we have in the province, and I think there’s pretty unanimous consent here in the House that we have seen that, with inflation and costs going up.

I want to read a quote from Vivian Chiem, who is with the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance: “The decision to maintain the domestic tuition fees for the next three years is very welcoming news to students. Amid a cost-of-living crisis and limited opportunities for income, this move will help with post-secondary affordability and allow students to put money towards basic necessities like rent and food.”

Clearly, students are supportive of our decision to maintain this tuition freeze. Is that something that the official opposition is supportive of as well?

I appreciate the question from my colleague across the way. One of the reasons that I spent so much time at the beginning of my remarks in providing a context for the financial situation that Ontario colleges and universities face is to emphasize that no policy, however perfect it is, is going to be effective if there are no resources to implement it. We have reached a situation, in the post-secondary sector, where our post-secondary institutions are literally on the brink.

We heard from the government’s own research report that was released in January 2024 about mental health supports on campus that universities and colleges are already struggling with the ability to resource the mental health supports that are supposed to be available. So we need to have that funding—

As lots of research has highlighted, financial stress is very much a contributor to student mental health issues.

We know that investing in OSAP, in making student financial assistance much more accessible to students would go a long way to removing the financial barriers that students face, not just to enter post-secondary education, but to continue their studies.

As I mentioned, we have seen post-secondary students, international students among the largest group of food bank users because of their struggles with food insecurity, because the affordability crisis that we are seeing in this province is affecting—

She goes on to say, “This commitment does little to tackle the serious lack of investments in Ontario’s post-secondary sector and continues to burden students, especially international students, to fund the quality of post-secondary education.”

So while they may be supportive of the requirement to have mental health policies and racism and hate policies, students are very concerned about this government’s failure to address the fundamental—

What we have here is a mess that started long ago with the Liberal government, with the lowest provincial funding—the member talked about it being 44% of the average of other provinces’ funding. Very low funding led to precarious work—a rise in sessional precarious professors teaching our young ones. That led to the exploitation of international students. The massive growth, a 343% increase—a 420% increase in private international students, attracting people to fill the coffers and pay the bills that the Conservative and Liberal governments are refusing to pay. The federal announcement is going to result in about a $2-billion cut. The Conservative government’s solution to this is to provide an approximately $23-million top-up.

To the member: What is wrong with these governments? They don’t understand that we need to provide proper funding to our post-secondary institutions so that students can be successful. It’s not about freezing fees or slightly reducing tuition. It’s about paying the system properly so that post-secondary institutions, like Laurentian University, aren’t in fear of going into bankruptcy and so our students can be successful without a lifetime of debt.

I want to thank the member from London West. You made mention that across Canada, we have the highest tuition. As we work towards reducing the tuition and creating a freeze on it, I would like to ask—both the NDP and Liberals have come out to call the increase in tuition—they both want an increase in tuition. Our government, under the leadership of the Premier, has cut and frozen tuition by 10%. Our government is also following up by regulating—

Thank you to my colleague for that question. Certainly, we have seen the track record of this government is that they don’t value post-secondary education. They don’t value public institutions in general. They don’t value the public hospitals who deliver health care to Ontarians that are completely at the breaking point.

They don’t value health care workers. We saw them introduce Bill 124 in 2019, which imposed an unconstitutional wage cap on public sector collective bargaining. They have shown a fundamental disregard for the work that public sector workers do in this province.

But what the NDP would have done differently is that when you remove that almost $2 billion in revenue that is represented by tuition, you have to replace it. You have to ensure that there are public dollars there to sustain the stability of the sector. That is something that this government failed to do, and that is why we find ourselves on the brink. That is why the sector is in such a very serious crisis at this moment. And this government’s investment will do very little to solve the problems that have been created.

Questions?

Second reading debate deemed adjourned.

Because of the advocacy of the Northwestern Ontario Women’s Centre, the Thunder Bay committee to end woman abuse and the Naadmaagewin Indigenous Domestic Violence Committee, on September 25 Thunder Bay’s city council declared gender-based intimate partner violence an epidemic.

The rates of gender-based violence and sexual assault in northwestern Ontario are amongst the highest in the province, but in small, northern communities, vast distances and sparse populations make it extremely difficult for women to access support. It’s not possible to escape if there are no shelters where you live. And when funding is based on population numbers and not the geographic realities of the north, it’s guaranteed women will have nowhere safe to go.

The court system is also failing survivors. Because of court backlogs, plea bargains are pushed, women are silenced and perpetrators are released. Femicide, the killing of children: These still shock, yet they are only the extreme end of the everyday coercive control that keeps people living with abuse.

We need the Conservative government to listen to survivors, provide sustainable funding, fix the court system and act on all the recommendations of the Renfrew inquest, beginning with the first recommendation: Declare gender-based violence as the epidemic it is.

Meegwetch. Marsi. Merci. Thank you.

Speaker, in any given year, one in five Canadians experiences a mental illness. Within these statistics lie the stories and struggles of individuals with a unique journey of mental health challenges. By age 40, one in two have or have had a mental illness. Each number represents a person, a story and a struggle.

In Ontario, 24,000 social workers tirelessly navigate mental health care, offering support in alleviating these struggles.

Maya Angelou once said, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

Thanks to the Ontario Association of Social Workers, the largest collective of mental health support workers with 9,000 members, for exemplifying compassion and resilience by providing comfort and understanding to those in need.

As we honour Social Work Week from March 4 to 10, let’s recognize the crucial role of social workers in Mississauga–Malton and across the province. Whether you are a social worker or have been touched by one, I invite you to explore this year’s theme of “Social Work Opens Doors” at oasw.org.

Let’s remember: With every open door, we pave the way for hope, healing, a bright future and a brighter Ontario.

This week is Black Mental Health Week in Toronto.

To quote blackmentalhealthweek.ca: “TAIBU Community Health Centre, in partnership with the city of Toronto, hosted the inaugural Black Mental Health Day in March 2020, citing the Toronto Black community’s demand to end 400 years of oppression and the ongoing mental health impact of persistent, systemic anti-Black racism in all settings....

“This year, Tropicana Community Services, Strides Toronto, Delta Family Resource Centre, Black Health Alliance and Women’s Health in Women’s Hands are joining TAIBU Community Health Centre to ensure more voices are heard.”

Heal in Colour, the Mental Health Benefits of Representation; Painting as Therapy: Black Student Engagement Wellness Night; Breaking Down Barriers to Mental Health in Black Communities; Mental Health Law 101, Managing through Grieving and Loss; Tools to Help Black Families Navigate the Complexities of Social Services; Social Connections for Senior Mental Health; Black Men’s Mental Health Panel; and Black Survivors: the Intersection of Race and Human Trafficking are just a few of the courageous conversations programmed for this week.

On Saturday night, you can check out When Sisters Speak, a spoken word showcase, at St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, Jane Mallett Theatre.

Black Mental Health Week will have its closing ceremony in my community of Toronto–St. Paul’s at the Toronto Archives at 255 Spadina Road, and I invite all of you to join us.

I want to take this opportunity to thank the city of Toronto’s Confronting Anti-Black Racism unit. Thank you, Kemba, your team, community partners and advisers for your community “heart work.”

It is my hope this Legislature will follow suit and declare this week formally as Black Mental Health Week across the province of Ontario as so many of us have asked the Legislature to do.

Tomorrow, we celebrate International Women’s Day and work towards a gender-equal world. I’m a proud member of a caucus that has 21 female members and eight female ministers.

Sadly, as we celebrate our victories, we still live in a world where inequity and gender-based violence occur. Human trafficking and intimate partner violence are realities in our community, and unfortunately these happen silently too close to home.

After October 7, we were shell-shocked by the brutality of the attack on Israel, an attack that used premeditated rape and sexual mutilation as weapons of war. These acts were made more painful because their existence was widely denied and that denial was defeating and deafening. These women’s voices were silenced. Their stories were not believed.

Our government has zero tolerance for violence against women and children in all its forms, and we stand with the victims of violence. That’s why, this year, we invested nearly $247 million to support victims and almost $29 million in violence prevention initiatives. Our province is investing an overall $1.4 billion over the next three years to end gender-based violence and support victims.

Last year, we invested $5.5 million in the Women’s Economic Security Program to expand and increase training opportunities for low-income women to equip them with the skills, knowledge and experience to increase their financial security.

Our government supports women. We believe in women. We listen to women. Thank you.

Ontarians want an independent justice system, judges who are fair. The Conservatives have appointed two former staffers of the Premier’s office on the committee that selects judges, staffers who remain in close communication with the government through their roles as lobbyists.

When asked about it, Premier Ford said he wanted to appoint like-minded judges. And in the face of public pushback, what did the Premier do? He said he’s going to double down, triple down, quadruple down, even quintuple down. This might sound funny, but this is a serious issue. He’s a man on a mission.

Conservatives always talk about how meritocracy is the way to go, but it appears as long as you are with the same mindset as the Premier, you’re good to go. What happened to the fundamental principle of judges being neutral, of the impartiality of the courts? A judge who bows down to political pressure would be in clear breach of their oath of office.

Speaker, this is not only bad for the quality of the justice system but also for the perception of fairness of the courts by the public. People will feel like they’re being judged by Premier Ford, and I think it’s fair to say he’s not a good judge.

Before I start, I must say it was hard to get all my feelings out in 90 seconds.

On February 29, 2024, Canada and the entire world took notice of the passing of the Right Honourable Brian Mulroney, my favourite Prime Minister.

First and foremost, my condolences go out to Caroline and her whole family. I went from watching Prime Minister Mulroney on the daily news with my father to hearing him speak to caucus after the general election of 2022. Talk about a pinch-me moment. He truly made me realize the gravity of being elected and the importance of our roles as MPPs.

The accolades are strong with too many to mention. Only some of these achievements are the acid rain accord, NAFTA and ending apartheid in Africa. In my opinion, GST has set up Canada for prosperity. Our country would not be what we know today without it.

As Prime Minister Mulroney stated, time will judge his actions. I am guided by the same principle, stated in my maiden speech: “If my kids don’t approve of what I’m doing today when they get older, I know I could have done better.”

It has been 40 years since he first formed government and his work has proven the test of time. With Caroline following in her father’s political footsteps and the success of the rest of the family, Mr. Mulroney left a vast and long-standing legacy.

Thank you to the Mulroney family for sharing your father with Canada. Mr. Mulroney, thank you for your service and commitment to Canada and the world.

As Muslim residents in Don Valley West and across Ontario prepare for Ramadan, a sacred month when they fast from dawn to dusk, self-reflect, show gratitude and offer charity to those who are less fortunate, I would like to highlight two local organizations in my riding that are doing just that. The Canadian Community Services Organization and the Thorncliffe Park Autism Support Network have organized their annual Ramadan food drive and free meal distribution to support those in need.

As we navigate these challenging times, it’s wonderful to see the generosity that is so present in Thorncliffe Park. I’d like to thank Masood Alam, Shakhlo Sharipova, Azhar Bokhari, Saifuddin Nasir Malik, Najia Zewari and Muhammad Ahmad Alam, some of whom are here today in the gallery, and all their volunteers and donors for their efforts to support those in need during Ramadan.

I also want to acknowledge the contributions of those strong women who are working hard to make a difference on this day in advance of International Women’s Day. I have attended several CCSO food drives, and seeing the piles of meals Shakhlo and her team distribute, it’s wonderful to see people of all ages, from teens to seniors, giving back.

To everyone getting ready to observe Ramadan: Ramadan Mubarak.

Colleagues, Tuesday morning I had the pleasure, along with Ministers Todd Smith and Lisa Thompson, of attending a great event at the Toronto board of trade, at which Bruce Power presented its 2023 annual review and energy report. It was an excellent presentation that outlined all the terrific things the company is doing.

Let me give you a few highlights. Operations at Bruce Power are going very well. Bruce Power is the largest operating nuclear power plant in the world—amazing. To keep these great operations going, the company is actively under way with its historic life extension program, Ontario’s largest private sector clean energy infrastructure project, which will extend the life of the existing units to 2064. Under this program, unit 6, which powers more than 900,000 homes in Ontario, was returned to service last fall on budget and ahead of schedule.

Of course, there’s Bruce Power’s exciting work with medical isotopes. For cancer patients, medical isotope technologies and treatments allow for fewer hospital visits, shorter treatment durations and hospital stays, and fewer side effects. They have the potential to revolutionize cancer care—truly amazing.

To CEO Mike Rencheck and the thousands of hard-working staff at Bruce Power, thank you for all you’re doing to produce clean energy that will power Ontario now and into the future and for your exciting work to beat cancer. This is legacy work and is truly appreciated by us all.

It is a pleasure to rise today to highlight some recent announcements I was able to make on behalf of the Minister of Health in my riding of Perth–Wellington. Last month I was pleased to announce not one but two local family health teams would be receiving funding to expand primary care in our rural communities.

The Minto–Mapleton Family Health Team will receive over $560,000 to hire two additional nurse practitioners, an RPN and a medical receptionist. This funding will ensure an additional 1,600 residents can access primary care closer to home.

The Listowel–Wingham family health team will receive over $822,000 to expand primary care to serve an additional 2,000 residents.

Speaker, it truly was a historic day for our rural public health care sector. The province-wide investment of $90 million represents the first expansion of primary care in Ontario’s history, ever. It is disappointing the previous Liberal government, supported by the NDP, had 15 years to expand primary care in rural Ontario, and they chose not to, Speaker. In fact, the current Liberal members and the current NDP members voted against our historic expansion.

Despite these obstacles the previous Liberal government put in place, we are rebuilding our public health care sector. We’re expanding medical school spots and nurse practitioner spots. We expanded the clinical extern program. Speaker, our government will continue to expand primary care.

That concludes our members’ statements for this morning.

Applause.

I want to just say “barev” to our wonderful friends visiting us from the Armenian Community Centre: Greg Koko Chitilian, Jack Hagop Torossian and George Shahnazarian. Welcome to the Legislature. I know Aris Babikian brought them here. Thank you for all your advocacy and everything you do for the Armenian Canadian community.

Mr. Speaker, first of all, I’d like to thank you and your team for hosting the Remarkable Assembly women’s breakfast this morning. I’m happy that I had the opportunity to meet so many remarkable women who have joined us here in the Legislature. Welcome to the Ontario Legislature, formally.

Secondly, I’d also like to welcome the Ontario social service workers’ representatives: Dr. Deepy Sur, Kaelen Boyd and Justin Dela Pena. Happy social worker service week.