Good morning. Let us pray.

Prières / Prayers.

Resuming the debate adjourned on March 6, 2024, on the motion for second reading of the following bill:

Bill 166, An Act to amend the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities Act / Projet de loi 166, Loi modifiant la Loi sur le ministère de la Formation et des Collèges et Universités.

That concludes our members’ statements for this morning.

Applause.

Good morning. I’m really pleased. I want to also lend my voice in welcoming former MPP for York South–Weston Faisal Hassan here this morning and the folks from Mount Dennis. But I also want to—yes, hello—welcome my parents, Geoff and Kathy Stiles, who are joining us in the members’ gallery today.

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?

Thank you very much for that question from the Minister of Multiculturalism and Citizenship, who, by the way, couldn’t even address his own community during question period this morning.

Interjections.

Here’s the deal: As a graduate of women and gender studies from U of T, as someone who has spent the majority of my adult life as a child and youth worker, as a teacher, as a human rights adviser, I come to this place equity-centred. But what I will not do is support a bill that touches on equity and mental health issues in a performative manner and doesn’t actually put funding onto those issues. You cannot address those issues without funding staff, funding human beings, funding departments, actual funding tools to actually support your calling to address mental health issues and inequities in the post-secondary institution.