Good morning. Let us pray.

Prayers.

Resuming the debate adjourned on May 7, 2024, on the motion for third 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.

The next question?

Further debate?

Good morning, everyone. I’ll be brief. I know you don’t believe me—

There are three things that this bill does. The one that I can see that has—

You have the tools available already, but you’re putting more demands and giving yourself more power in relation to universities and colleges. All of us in this building are against all forms of hate: anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, transphobia. We’re all there. We did have tools inside government in 2018 in the Anti-Racism Directorate to address all of those things, but this government cut them all.

This doesn’t happen very often. It’s not very often that I agree with the Premier of this province, but I want to tell you why or tell you the thing that the Premier said with regard to this bill: “It’s really up to the dean to govern his own university. I think we shouldn’t get involved in that, that’s my personal opinion. Like I said, there’s a lot of tools ministers have that they don’t use. It’s up to the people, that’s what we believe in.” And I agree.

To actually make programs and then not provide the support that is needed to make those programs that you say are important work is not really doing a heck of a lot. That’s why this bill is hard to support.

I was part of a government—I worked for a Premier who put a focus on post-secondary education. Campuses expanded. We made sure more people had access to post-secondary education, like first generation, and then programs later to add grants and supports for people of very low income to be able to get an opportunity.

I’m not going take any lessons from you. So your demand of knowing what I’m going to say or what I’m going to do, I’m not going to buy that. You guys haven’t done what you’re supposed to do.

Post-secondary education is not just fun and good, it’s actually about the economy. It’s actually about having the most highly trained, highly skilled workforce. It’s the best thing for our economy. To not actually ensure that we can keep our workforce stable, that we have enough people to teach our young people the things that they need to learn, the skills that they need to build, it just doesn’t make economic sense.

For a government that talks about expanding the economy and about growing, I cannot believe the lack of support this government has for post-secondary education.

Good morning, Mr. Speaker and everyone here.

“We celebrate, we acknowledge spirit and spirit will come alive.” This sentiment from Pauline Shirt will never be forgotten, and her spirit will continue to come alive through generations to come.

We sadly lost Pauline, one of Canada’s most beloved Indigenous elders, from the physical world on May 7, 2024. Her spirit lives on not only through her children and loved ones but in the stories told in Indigenous languages which she had a hand in preserving.

Grandmother (Nokomis) Pauline Shirt, Nimikiiquay, or Thunder Woman, as she was also known, was a knowledge keeper, leader and visionary.

A Plains Cree Elder from the Red-Tail Hawk Clan, Pauline and her late husband, Vern Harper, first established the Ontario leg of the Native People’s Caravan to Ottawa in 1974. Their critical work did not stop there. In 1976, Pauline and Vern founded Canada’s first Indigenous-run and -focused school, because they wanted a culturally safe and appropriate space for their son to learn. Kapapamahchakwew, Wandering Spirit School, still operates in the east end of Toronto today.

As city councillor, I had the pleasure of engaging with Pauline on a student beading installation at Raindrop Plaza, the first stormwater demonstration site in the city.

In 2023, I watched Pauline Shirt be inducted into the Order of Ontario, the province’s highest civilian honour, for a lifetime of contributions.

Pauline Shirt chose to live in our Beaches–East York community at the end of her remarkable life, and there is no greater honour for me than to have represented her.

Meegwetch, Pauline. You will be forever remembered.