Staffing shortages are having a severe impact on our schools, robbing our children of the supports they need to learn, to be safe, and in some cases, to even be at school.

As one Ontario principal says, “We are not staffed properly to support students. We can only respond to emergencies....” The Minister of Education has been frantically pointing fingers in every direction instead of taking responsibility and coming up with a plan to fix it.

Where is the plan, Speaker? Will we finally see it in today’s budget?

We have over 40,000 teachers who are qualified, certified and in good standing with the Ontario teacher’s college who are choosing not to teach in our schools because of this minister’s policies.

Meanwhile, we have an attendance problem in high schools because why bother going to school if you’re not going to learn anything today? And more than half of principals say they’ve asked parents to keep their children with special needs home. This is serious, and it deserves a better response than finger pointing from this minister.

So, I repeat, will we see a plan to address staffing shortages in today’s budget?

What you will see in today’s budget is a continued commitment to public education with a commitment to build schools, to invest in back to basics on literacy and math and improving standards in Ontario’s publicly funded schools. That is the cornerstone of our plan to get back to basics and to create pathways to good-paying jobs for our young people.

If the members opposite want to be constructive, if they’re concerned about absences within schools that impact quality education, then they will stand up to their union friends and insist that retired educators are permitted to be in classrooms where they belong instead of unqualified staff ahead of teachers. It makes no sense that the NDP—

Interjections.

Unlike provinces east and west that have significant shortages that are plaguing the continuity of learning, we have gone ahead of this, and we’re committed to going even further, in partnership with the Minister of Finance, to invest in quality learning, to raise standards and ambitions, to give hope and economic opportunity to young people. When they graduate, they can get a good job and achieve the dream of this country.