I appreciate the opportunity to rise this afternoon for the third reading of Bill 188. As well, I’ll be sharing my time with the member from Windsor–Tecumseh.

The Supporting Children’s Futures Act was introduced by my friend and my former colleague at the Treasury Board, and now the Minister of Children, Community and Social Services. I want to thank him and his team, including his parliamentary assistants from Thornhill and Markham–Thornhill, for all their work on this bill, including over 30 consultations right across the entire child welfare sector, including children’s aid society service providers, but also youth and families with experience in the system, from every part of Ontario.

Before I begin my remarks, I just want to take the opportunity to congratulate Sabra Desai, a registered social worker from Mississauga–Lakeshore, on winning the Attorney General’s Victim Services Award of Distinction yesterday. Sabra is chair of the board at the Gatehouse in Etobicoke, which provides support to victims of childhood sexual abuse. Many years ago, she helped to establish the Embrave Agency to End Violence in my community, which was originally known as the Interim Place. I was honoured to join the virtual awards ceremony last night. Again, I just want to congratulate Sabra and all the other award winners yesterday.

Speaker, most of the witnesses who appeared at the consultations and at the committee hearings on Bill 188 were former youth in care or people like Sabra with direct work experience in the child welfare system. As the minister said, they told us that the province needed new rules to better protect the rights of children and youth, to improve the quality of child welfare services and to hold service providers accountable for the quality of services they provide. I know that this feedback was invaluable to the minister and his team in developing Bill 188.

I also want to thank my friend from Sarnia–Lambton, who has been an incredible advocate for children and youth in care, and for the improvements to the child welfare system. I know that some of the key measures in his private member’s bill on this issue are now included in Bill 188.

Speaker, together, the measures in Bill 188 would build on all the work that we began four years ago to modernize Ontario’s child welfare system and to ensure that Ontario’s children and youth in care have all the support they need so that no one is left behind. That includes a $170-million investment in the new Ready, Set, Go Program that we launched a year ago to help connect youth who are transitioning out of care with skills they need to succeed, including post-secondary education or training in the skilled trades. Last year alone, this program supported over 4,000 youths across the province.

And it includes a new $310-million investment, as part of the 2024 budget, in community organizations that support children and youth in care, and other vulnerable Ontarians. In Peel region, it includes the Child Welfare Immigration Centre of Excellence program—the first of its kind in Canada—which helps children’s aid societies address immigration status issues for children and youth.

If passed, Bill 188 would build on that work by modernizing the Child, Youth and Family Services Act, enhancing ministry oversight and introducing new and improved enforcement tools. Because, as the minister said, while it is true that the vast majority of service providers deliver the highest-quality care for children and youth, we also have to deal with the fact that there are a few who are not acting in good faith, and others who should never have been allowed in the system in the first place.

I want to thank Carly Kalish, the executive director of Victim Services Toronto, for her recent testimony at the Standing Committee on Justice Policy in support of Bill 188, including heartbreaking stories about human trafficking of foster children in Ontario who were exploited by their own foster parents. As she said, this is a demonstration of the urgent need for reform, and there are stories like this right across Ontario, including in Mississauga, with victims as young as 13 years old.

That’s why the changes provided in Bill 188 would allow us to expand background checks beyond the formal police record checks in order to better protect children and youth in care. As well, I know that the minister is working on new regulations to standardize the requirements for police record checks across the province and to allow the college of social workers to share information with other colleges in other provinces, or with children’s aid societies, in order to confirm when a social worker is under investigation or to address any other serious risk that a child or youth may be harmed. At the same time, the bill will help restrict access to records about children and youth once they leave care in order to protect their privacy.

Bill 188 would also provide strong enforcement tools to hold bad-faith providers accountable, including new orders to comply and larger fines. In some cases, fines would increase from $5,000 to $250,000. As well, the bill would clarify that early childhood educators can be guilty of an offence if they fail to report child protection concerns to a children’s aid society. This would be similar to the rules for other professions including social workers and teachers.

I’d like to conclude by reading some of the feedback that we have received on Bill 188 from experts in the child welfare sector.

Susan Wells, the CEO of Family Service Ontario, said that Bill 188 would enhance “the safety, privacy and rights of children and youth. Family Services Ontario strongly supports this legislation for its commitment to safeguarding the well-being of our children and youth.”

John Fleming, the chair of the Ontario College of Social Workers, said Bill 188 is a “step towards” strengthening “protection for the public, including the province’s most vulnerable children and youth.”

Valerie McMurtry, president of the Children’s Aid Foundation of Canada, said, “We value the government’s commitment to making sure young people receive information on the high-quality supports that are available.”

Speaker, as I said, the voices of Ontarians with direct experience in the system have been the most important in developing Bill 188, so it is appropriate for me to close with the words of former foster child Diana Frances. She said, “Speaking from my life experience, I believe with all my heart that these improvements to the safety, well-being, and privacy of children and youth in care are of vital importance.”

Again, I want to thank the minister and his team and everyone from the child welfare sector who has come forward to share their story and their recommendations on Bill 188. This isn’t a partisan issue; it’s a looking-after-our-children issue. I also want to thank my friends from across the aisle for their remarks and for their support for this important bill.

I want to thank the member for that great question. Our government will do whatever it takes to protect children and youth in this province. Not only that, we are creating 20 new inspection positions. As well, we’re going to be boosting the unannounced inspections to increase transparency through the system.

I want to thank the member. We’re going to continue to protect our children, because children are very important to all of us in here, especially myself. I have two young boys, and I know how important it is to protect our children through the province of Ontario.