Resuming debate, the government side. I recognize the member for Burlington.

I’m pleased to build on Minister Dunlop’s remarks about the proposed legislative changes under the Strengthening Accountability and Student Supports Act, 2024; changes that will help our colleges and universities become beacons of mental health and wellness, and create the best conditions for students to learn and thrive. That’s why I’m proud to show my support for the new Strengthening Accountability and Student Supports Act.

As Minister Dunlop explained, the first initiative in this legislation is a clear sign of our government’s commitment to post-secondary students. If passed, this legislation will require all publicly assisted colleges and universities to create and follow through on policies for student mental health. These policies will clearly outline all the mental health and wellness programs, supports and services available to students at their post-secondary institution.

To stay accountable to our students, we would require colleges and universities to publish these policies on their websites and report to their boards every year, making sure that all mental health programs, supports and services are implemented effectively, and truly improve the mental health and well-being of students. To stay current with the best mental health guidance and available supports, these policies would be reviewed at least once every five years.

To turn these mental health policies into reality, our government is investing $23 million to help institutions enhance their mental health supports, including $12.5 million in 2024-25 for Get A-Head, an online platform that enhances post-secondary students’ access to virtual mental health service, all while expediting the graduation of post-secondary students in mental health fields, as well as an $8-million investment over three years, starting in 2024-25, for the post-secondary mental health action plan.

For many years, I’ve been a committed mentor and coach to high school, college and university students, and have had the privilege of working first-hand with diverse learners. I can tell you that with each year students face more complex mental health challenges. In fact, mental health supports can be the single difference between a student who succeeds, getting the most out of their educational experience, and one who, unfortunately, does not. That’s why we need to give our students the best chance we can. We can do that by working in partnership with post-secondary institutions to make sure every campus has mental health supports for their students and that every single student can easily access these supports when they need them.

Over the past year, I’ve had the opportunity to visit many colleges, universities and Indigenous institutes, and what struck me was just how widespread and complex student mental health issues are. As I met with students, faculty and administrators, common threads emerged. I came to understand that students don’t know what mental health services and supports are available at their institution, and they don’t know how to access them. Students also told me that it’s complicated to navigate the maze of mental health services and that they don’t know how to access the supports that are available to them.

Our post-secondary sector has made student mental health a priority and is committed to providing mental health services and supports to students, many of whom are living on their own for the very first time. We know mental health is essential to student success and we also know that young people aged 15 to 24 are more likely to experience mental illness and/or substance use disorders than any other age group. That’s why it’s time to eliminate barriers to mental health supports on campus, because when we invest in mental health, we invest in the future—a future where every student can thrive and learn and contribute.

I’m proud to say that the legislative actions we are introducing through the Strengthening Accountability and Student Supports Act, 2024, build on the significant steps we have taken to support the mental health of post-secondary students. In fact, in 2023-24 we are investing more than $32 million in mental health supports. This includes funding provided directly to post-secondary institutions through multiple grants. For example, the Mental Health Services Grant helps colleges and universities develop and expand mental health services on campus, such as specialized supports for at-risk groups, peer-to-peer supports, as well as mindfulness and resiliency-building programs.

There is also the Mental Health Worker Grant, which helps post-secondary institutions hire mental health professionals like counsellors, social workers, nurses, care coordinators—all to help the mental health needs of students. In 2022-23, more than 160 positions were filled with the help of this grant, which resulted in shorter wait times for students and less pressure on campus-based services.

Supporting ongoing initiatives that help provide direct one-on-one support for students also continues to be a high priority for our government—initiatives like the Good2Talk mental health helpline for post-secondary students. In 2023-24, our government is investing $5 million in this initiative so the organization can expand its services to continue to provide free, bilingual and confidential services to students. Good2Talk provides confidential services for post-secondary students in Ontario 24/7, 365 days a year, by phone, text and live chat. When students are feeling anxious, misunderstood or overwhelmed, just having someone to talk about it, someone who is truly there to listen, can make all the difference in the world.

To ensure all students in the province have access to mental health services, our government also invested more than $12 million in 2023-24 in another important resource: the Get A-Head portal. Students seeking care can access the portal to match with a counselling student in training and their supervisor, based on an area of support, gender, age and ethnicity. This tool not only provides critical and timely mental health services to post-secondary students at low to no cost, but it also gives students in mental health fields of study the opportunity to gain experience delivering supports. I’m pleased to report that in 2022-23, the Get A-Head platform served over 27,000 post-secondary students. And according to a survey carried out by those overseeing the online tool, more than 80% of the students who responded reported improvements in their mental health and well-being, and about 70% of the graduate student trainees surveyed believe the platform enabled them to deliver effective care. What a winning combination. That’s why I’m pleased that our most recent investment in this platform will expand access across all publicly assisted colleges, universities and Indigenous institutes in Ontario.

In 2023-24, our government also provided $750,000 for another important initiative, the Centre for Innovation in Campus Mental Health. This is a partnership between Colleges Ontario, the Council of Ontario Universities, the College Student Alliance, and the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance. With this additional funding, the centre will continue to promote the exchange of knowledge in the student mental health sector, foster collaboration and research, and facilitate access to expertise to meet the mental health needs of all students.

The Ministry of Colleges and Universities is also a partner in this government’s multi-year mental health and addictions strategy that is led by the Ministry of Health. The strategy, Roadmap to Wellness: A Plan to Build Ontario’s Mental Health and Addictions System, seeks to address key challenges in the system, including long wait times, barriers to access and uneven quality of service. Our government has committed $3.8 billion over 10 years in this strategy. We have fulfilled this commitment by flowing $525 million in new annualized funding into the system since 2019-20. These investments are helping to deliver high-quality care and filling important gaps in the care continuum.

Through these efforts, we want post-secondary students to know they are not alone and that help and resources are always available. The legislative amendments proposed today would further build on our government’s efforts to support the well-being of students, requiring all public colleges and universities to have blueprints for their mental health supports and services that will help students in Ontario have access to the right resources when they need them the most.

In closing, I’ll say this: I feel optimistic about the historic changes being proposed as part of the Strengthening Accountability and Student Supports Act, 2024. I strongly believe that the new legislative amendments and investments for mental health that Minister Dunlop and I outlined, combined with other important amendments introduced to address incidents of anti-hate and increased transparency of student fees, will go a long way to improving the overall experience of Ontario’s post-secondary students. As such, I appreciate your support as we move forward.

It’s now time for questions.

Through you, Madam Speaker: Considering the blue-ribbon panel recommendation for an urgent $2.5 billion investment over three years to sustain our post-secondary institutions and the current plan to provide less than half of this amount, that’s starving the sector until it implodes—well, it’s imploded. This is a crisis created and not found.

Can the government explain how it plans to address the remaining financial gap to prevent the undermining of quality and accessibility of higher education in Ontario?

I certainly thank the member for her comments on this bill and her direct involvement in it. I really like the variety of things that we’re doing here to support post-secondary institutions with the sustainability fund, and also the efficiencies and operations we’ll be working with them on, and the tuition freeze, of course.

But I’m curious, member: You have had direct experience on the mental health front—and just your reflections on how this bill will help that community in our post-secondary institutions. I would appreciate your additional thoughts on that.

Thank you to the member opposite for that question. Last week’s announcement of $1.3 billion represents the single largest investment into Ontario’s post-secondary system in over a decade. Under the Liberals, colleges and universities had ballooning costs, with students having to pay for the increases.

Unlike the Liberals, propped up by the NDP, we are not going to fund colleges and universities on the backs of the students. Ontario is in the midst of an affordability crisis and asking students to pay more is irresponsible. While inflation is rising and students are needing to focus on paying for heating, eating, housing and other essentials, we will not be asking them to pay more for their education.

The disparity we see sometimes does not necessarily come—so institutions and different supports and different services vary from colleges and universities, and really, the spirit and intent of this legislation is to make sure that colleges and universities have a policy in place and that students understand how to access the supports and services that are available to them.

My question is for the member from Burlington. Highly educated contract lecturers make up 50% of those teaching at our colleges and universities. The pay is abysmal. There are few, if any, benefits, and contract lecturers have to reapply every year for yet another short-term contract. It is ironic that so many of those nurturing the learning and success of upcoming generations are low-wage, precarious workers.

Is there anything in the government’s plans to address the inequity and starving of people who are doing so much of the teaching?

Further questions?

Further debate?

The number of hate crimes in the province has skyrocketed in recent months. Anyone who reads the newspaper has seen articles describing the hate and alienation many students experience because of their religion, ethnicity and nationality. What is the government doing to ensure that students can learn in an environment that is safe, respectful and inclusive?

Thanks for the commentary on this piece of legislation. Our critic this morning did a full hour on and really untangled this particular piece of legislation.

I come from a riding where there’s the University of Waterloo, Wilfrid Laurier and Conestoga. The issues of mental health on these campuses have been compounded by poverty, by a lack of housing, by a lack of resources. I’m thinking of when the Liberals once mandated and legislated student well-being in the education system, but the funding never flowed. The resources were not there.

What can the member say about legislating a responsibility on these post-secondary institutions? Your own blue-ribbon review indicated that there’s core fundamental underfunding on operational funding. So how are these institutions going to meet this moment when you are intentionally underfunding them and setting them up to fail, and by doing so, I think, from a moral perspective, hurting the students in the post-secondary institutions across this great province?

Before I start, I want to acknowledge the member for Burlington. I had an opportunity to meet her in Mississauga when we are at Sheridan College. It was really good to have you there. Thank you for the passion and the compassion that you have.

Madam Speaker, as you know, my daughter just recently has gone to the University of Windsor. She’s doing nursing, first year. My goodness, hats off to these young students. University can be difficult and challenging. In fact, many of my constituents and members have talked about it, that navigating the university and college mental health program often requires a degree of its own.

The question to you is, you’ve brought this bill. What will this bill do to help those youth?

As always, it is an honour to rise in this House to speak on behalf of the residents of Parkdale–High Park, today to Bill 166, Strengthening Accountability and Student Supports Act.

Our post-secondary institutions are at a breaking point, and this is because of decades of Liberal and Conservative underfunding. That didn’t happen overnight. This has been years in the making. Action on this file is long overdue, and we need serious and sustainable solutions to address this crisis. This bill that the government has brought forward just doesn’t meet the moment.

We value our world-class post-secondary institutions, and we know the positive impact they have on staff, students and surrounding communities. The Ontario NDP is committed to ensuring that everyone who lives, works and studies at a post-secondary institution has the support they need. That is why we’re calling on this Conservative government to immediately commit to serious and reliable funding for colleges and universities and strengthen oversight to end the exploitation of international students.

I’m going to talk a little bit about what’s in this bill. The bill requires public colleges and universities to have a student mental health policy that describes the programs, policies, services and supports available at the college or university. The minister may issue directives specifying the elements to be included in this policy and the steps the minister intends to take if the institution fails to comply. The policy would have to be posted on its website, reviewed at least once every five years and reported annually to the board of governors on the implementation and effectiveness.

I agree, we need to have student mental health policies, and I think many or most universities and colleges have a student mental health policy. What they don’t have is the funding to provide the support and services to the students. We know from data we see year after year that the demand for mental health supports is increasing.

Speaker, in my first term in office, when I got elected in 2018, the first bill I tabled in this House was to ensure that every child and young person had the right to receive access to timely mental health care. The bill proposed that, for any young person, basically 24 and under, if a mental health support was identified as being needed, they would get access to it within 30 days. This was an ask from Children’s Mental Health Ontario. It was part of the Kids Can’t Wait campaign. It was a fully costed plan. And, Speaker, when that bill was brought before this House and debated and voted on at second reading, it actually received unanimous support. But then, after that, the bill languished at committee. The government refused to take any action on it.

Already it was too late to be taking action because the wait-lists were growing and wait times were getting longer. But even if we had taken action then, we are talking about four or five years of work that would have already gone into ensuring that everyone, especially young people, have access to timely mental health care.

This bill also requires public colleges and universities “to have policies and rules to address and combat racism and hate, including but not limited to anti-Indigenous racism, anti-Black racism, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.” Again, the minister may issue directives specifying the elements of the policy and the steps the minister intends to take if an institution fails to comply. This policy, again, would have to be posted on the website, reviewed at least once every five years, and reported annually to the board of governors on the implementation and effectiveness.

Speaker, again, it’s very important to have policies, and we support that. We want to ensure, and we must actually ensure, that every student, staff—anybody—in post-secondary education feels welcome and that it’s a safe learning and working environment. But we need to make sure that our action as government, and particularly with this Conservative government, is not limited to just policies on paper, that there is proper funding in place to ensure that action can be taken.

Finally, it enables the minister to issue directives to colleges and universities specifying information to be provided to the public about costs associated with attending the institution, such as the ancillary fees, cost of textbooks and other learning materials.

It’s very, very important that this bill was tabled as part of a package of announcements that the government made following a report that came out in November, the blue-ribbon panel report—and, of course, the federal announcement of the cap on international study permits.

So, that package that this government announced in March—just last week—includes extending the tuition freeze for Ontario students for at least three or more years while allowing institutions to increase tuition by 5% for out-of-province domestic students, funding totalling just under $1.3 billion over three years. There is regulation to allow the minister to grant applied master’s degrees and the commitment to engage with colleges and universities to create tuition fee transparency.

Now, all of this is important, but I think that, again, it goes back to how for years students—important stakeholders within post-secondary education—have been ringing the alarm bells when it comes to the crisis. And the actions that I just outlined really are very, very small steps when it comes to addressing the scale of the crisis, which is why, as I said earlier, this bill does not meet the moment. The response to a crisis has to be able to solve the crisis or at least, at minimum, make a significant dent in the problem. But this does little— very, very little.

Speaker, let’s not forget that the post-secondary institutions are in a financial crisis for a number of reasons, starting with chronic underfunding. Ontario’s per student operating funding, which is really the bulk of the funding from the government, is well below the national average. This has been the case for decades. The Liberals underfunded post-secondary institutions and under the Conservative government, this current government, that funding has decreased even further. Of course, the government has talked about freezing tuition, but has not actually provided the funding to replace the revenue lost from tuition. I agree: We need to reduce tuition. Tuition should not be a barrier to attending a college or a university. But we need to provide the supports to offset that, and that has to be done through increased investments—increased public investments, I should add, because what we do not want is privatization in our public institutions, in our post-secondary institutions.

Of course, as for everyone else and in all sectors, inflation has been an issue. Higher Education Strategy Associates estimates that, accounting for inflation, the stagnant government funding and the tuition freeze have meant that Ontario’s public colleges and universities have lost about 31% of the funding, of the government-controlled revenue or the funding that the government provides, since 2010. That’s a huge figure: 31%.

Of course, as a result, what has been happening is colleges and universities unfortunately have developed an overreliance on international students. Post-secondary institutions have become dependent on international students. This actually started and ramped up under the Liberals and, under the Conservatives, it has skyrocketed. The Auditor General reviews both colleges and universities. I think multiple reviews have included warnings about this, again, over many years, but the government has failed to act on the AG’s recommendations.

I do want to acknowledge here that this growth in international students is happening across the sector. Of course, it’s not limited to private career colleges or public-private partnerships, but it is disproportionate in the private career colleges and public-private partnerships. In fact, international students at private career colleges that are partnered with the private colleges have seen skyrocketing increases in enrolment. I think some of the graphs that show the percentage of the increased enrolment have been shared around on social media, and it’s just unbelievable. There’s one—I don’t want to name any institution right now—but it’s an increase of 600% when it comes to international students.

Speaker, as you can see, the underfunding of our post-secondary institutions has led to a lot of other new problems as a consequence of the underfunding. What the government has announced in terms of this “historic funding” really is a drop in the bucket. It’s far from solving the crisis, but it does not even make a significant dent in the problem.

Don’t take it from me, Speaker. Let’s listen to what stakeholders had to say about this legislation. I’ll start with OCUFA. I’m going to quote directly from OCUFA’s statement: “The Minister of Colleges and Universities recognizes that we are facing a funding crisis, but the gap between what has been provided and what is needed is massive.” That’s from Nigmendra Narain, who is the president of OCUFA. They go on to say, “This is a one-time drop in the bucket.” As well, “The solution to the chronic underfunding of Ontario’s universities is simple: political will to make a true investment in per-student funding to get us up to the Canadian average.”

The request from important stakeholders like OCUFA is simply to have enough funding to be at the Canadian average, because right now, Ontario is dead last, and we have been dead last for many, many years.

I will add to that and say we should make it a goal to be the best. We want to be leaders. Investing in post-secondary institutions, investing in our students, in the supports and services—and in providing that funding—has huge economic benefits. It pays for itself and more in the long term, so it is extremely important. As OCUFA has said, at the very least we need to be at the Canadian average.

Another stakeholder, Council of Ontario Universities, goes on to say, “The sector will continue to adapt and evolve to better serve students and find even more innovative ways to drive greater efficiencies, as outlined in the sector’s efficiency update. However, the funding gap is just far too large to close through efficiencies alone. Ontario’s universities remain committed to working with the government on a longer-term solution to fix a broken funding model that is impacting all universities, so that they can continue to support student success and create the highly skilled talent and innovation our economy needs.”

Speaker, they go on to say, “We are calling on the Ontario 2024 budget to provide the additional multi-year base funding as recommended by the panel.” They’re of course referring to the blue-ribbon panel.

I don’t have too much time, but I do want to include the voices of students. First maybe I’ll share reaction from the workers, particularly CUPE.

Actually, before I go on to that, Speaker, I do want to state in the House that since the government tabled this bill, the past number of days, CUPE 3903, representing contract faculty, teaching assistants, graduate assistants, research assistants and part-time librarians and archivists at York University, has been on strike, and we all know why, really. In fact, it’s not a surprise. The low wages that CUPE 3903 workers experience do not come near to protecting workers from the skyrocketing inflation, the cost-of-living crisis. It is really heartbreaking when you hear that university workers—the workers who are really carrying a big percentage of the burden of teaching and the day-to-day operation of our classrooms and of the universities and colleges—have to rely on food banks to survive, and also have to work multiple jobs to survive. What kind of message are we sending to Ontarians? But also, what kind of message are we sending when it comes to what we value as Ontarians?

Speaker, I was quite surprised to learn that, in fact, it’s been a trend. A lot of the teaching assistants, the graduate assistants, they not only are now making up a larger percentage of the faculty, they’re now actually doing more than 50%—they teach more than 50% of the courses, and they are the precarious workers of our post-secondary education system.

I only have two minutes left. I did want to make sure I included voices from the students, so I will share a quote from the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance, who were here just recently as part of their lobby day. They say that—they go on to add some of the things that they welcome, but they really want to make sure that a lot of the funding need that exists on campuses when it comes to mental health services is focused. They’re appreciative that there’s some action on this, but of course, a lot more needs to be done.

Speaker, I’ll just end by saying that there are aspects of the bill that we support, but to truly address the crisis, what is needed is funding. So I urge the government to make the investments to have a world-class post-secondary education system in our province, to not only show that we value that and that we want to support students and faculty and everybody as part of the sector, but that this is something that is going to benefit us all.

It is now time for questions.

I thank the speaker very much for your remarks on this bill; it’s an important one.

There are a number of elements to this bill that I think are so supportive for post-secondary institutions: the sustainability fund, which provides underlying support for the sector, working with universities and post-secondary institutions—to work with them on their operations to make them work toward long-term sustainability; the tuition freeze, such a benefit for students; and, of course, the work on the mental health element for student support.

My question to the member is, isn’t this a wide range of measures that you could see supporting through this bill?

I thank the member for his question. As I stated in my remarks, there are certainly steps that have been taken in this bill that are addressing concerns that have been raised by stakeholders, especially students; however, so much more needs to be done. At the end of the day, we can have amazing, strong policies in place that are posted on the website and that everybody is aware of, but it doesn’t mean that in reality anything is changing, because the funding is lacking.

If we don’t increase the funding, what is essentially going to happen is that more supports and services, even the existing ones, are under threat and at risk for cutting.

The Deputy Speaker (Ms. Donna Skelly) Further questions?

Thanks so much to the member from Parkdale–High Park. I love the fact that she focused on the experience of international students.

I’ve spent a lot of time with Conestoga students in my riding. One student from India told me that she came to Ontario to learn, to gain experience, to build Canadian relationships. She didn’t come here to learn online.

Can you imagine, Madam Speaker, coming here just to learn online? I hope we can all agree that this is wrong.

Alex Usher, who has been a very vocal voice, obviously, on post-secondary institutions, says that—that of declining domestically sourced funding, because of Liberals and now this Conservative government, you’ve now offered only $700 million over three years in new public money, and about a third of what its own panel recommended.

To the member: How do you think post-secondary institutions are going to cope with this chronic and institutional underfunding going forward?

Question?

I recognize the member for Don Valley East for further debate.

I want to thank the member from Parkdale–High Park for her contribution to this discussion. Students, before coming to Canada to do their studies, I’m sure did a lot of research before deciding to come here. And they have seen a lot of great things that are here that can well fit into molding their careers into better global citizens. Bill 166 is a major win for students and post-secondary transparency across the province.

I’m worried that members of the opposition may choose to vote against this bill. I want to remind the House that this additional transparency for students—

Earlier today, the government and other members of the House spoke about the importance of International Women’s Day and the importance of us nurturing the leaders of tomorrow. I would like to ask the member for Parkdale–High Park how important it is to invest in said institutions, in our colleges and our universities, that are nurturing these leaders of tomorrow. Because I suspect it’s impossible—it’s impossible—for us to continue having women CEOs, presidents, chancellors, MPPs, all of these phenomenal women that we want to celebrate on International Women’s Day, without proper funding.

So, when the government’s own expert panel recommends $2.5 billion over three years, and the government invests roughly half that, what’s that impact on our post-secondary sector and students?