I thank my colleague for his remarks.

Speaker, let me start by stating that our government takes the privacy and safety of young Ontarians very seriously, so I’m very pleased to be here today to speak in support of Bill 194, the Strengthening Cyber Security and Building Trust in the Public Sector Act, 2024. I’m grateful to my cabinet colleague the Minister of Public and Business Service Delivery for his comprehensive approach to Bill 194 that works towards making the digital world safer for all Ontarians, especially our most vulnerable and the future of this province: the youth and children.

The proposed legislation would help strengthen privacy protections, including those for children whose personal information is held by children’s aid societies. My ministry has complementary legislative proposals before this house through Bill 188, the Supporting Children’s Futures Act, 2024, that was introduced on April 17.

The work in both pieces of legislation is a result of collaboration and the valued input of children, youth and families with lived experience in the child and youth protection sector. And it’s also done in collaboration with partners like children aid societies and service providers as well as First Nations, Inuit, Métis and urban Indigenous communities from across the province. I would like to acknowledge and express my deepest gratitude for the incredible work that these partners do. Their tireless efforts have a profound and lifelong impact on the outcomes of vulnerable children and youth as they transition from care into adulthood.

Speaker, we are here today because our government will never leave anyone behind, and it is especially important that no child or youth is left behind, that they have every chance to thrive and succeed regardless of their circumstances or history. We have heard from sector partners and communities about the need to implement measures that will better protect the rights of children and youth, that will enhance the quality of out-of-home care services and improve the accountability of service providers. That’s why we have introduced a broad range of legislative proposals and a suite of regulatory and policy changes in both Bill 188 and Bill 194 that will support the futures of some of the most vulnerable children in our province.

Today, I want to outline for the House how these two bills, if passed, would result in a safer online space for Ontario’s young people. The children and youth services sector supports a wide range of individuals with diverse needs as well as their families and caregivers right across the province. For example, the sector supports those in need of protection, who have experienced or may be at risk of abuse or neglect. It also supports youth who are involved in the youth justice system, including those admitted into custody or detention to help them find their way and engage with their community. The sector empowers children to overcome barriers and reach their goals.

Our ministry’s legislation, Bill 188, would, if passed, modernize and standardize important safeguards throughout the child and youth services sector. This includes stronger enforcement tools to hold licensed out-of-home care operators accountable to keep children and youth safe and healthy. It will create a framework that would enhance privacy protections of those who were formerly involved in the child welfare system. This will be done by further restricting access to records comprised of their personal childhood histories, once regulations are developed.

The proposals would also enable individuals to speak freely about their lived experience and give them more control over what they want to share publicly. These circumstances will be outlined following further consultations with the sector. They would also provide authority to expand the information that individuals working with vulnerable children and youth can be required to provide. This will go beyond formal police record checks such as offence declarations.

The proposals would reinforce the requirement for children’s aid societies and out-of-home care licensees to explain the role of the Ombudsman and how to contact their office to children and youth. Finally, they would clarify that early childhood educators can be subject to an offence for failing to report child protection concerns to a children’s aid society. This would be similar to other professions such as teachers and social workers.

Speaker, this bill is just another step forward in the work of child welfare, but not the final step. We’ll continue to engage and learn from stakeholders, including youth with lived experience and many others, as we work to improve safety, supports and access to resources for children and youth who are served by the child protection system.

Our government wants children to have a healthy, safe and age-appropriate digital experience when engaging with public sector organizations like schools and children’s aid societies. The proposed amendments in Bill 194 would enable the creation of protections that could help prevent inappropriate data practices that affect children and ensure that software applications support the health and well-being of all students. For example, future regulations under this legislation could include age-appropriate standards for software programs on devices like laptops that are used by students every day at school. These initiatives better protect how children’s personal information is collected and used, and they align with proposed measures that we introduced in the Legislature just six weeks ago.

Taken together, Bill 188 and Bill 194 will strengthen digital and privacy protections for children and youth right across our province. As you can see, this bill is an important element of the government’s ongoing redesign of the child welfare system.

Now I would like to speak to the connection with the proposed work and the broader Child Welfare Redesign Strategy, as it’s key to understanding the context in which Bill 194’s reforms are being proposed. Speaker, my colleagues and members of this House will recall that in July 2020, our ministry introduced the Child Welfare Redesign Strategy. Our government wants children and youth in care and in out-of-home care settings to feel supported and to be set up for success in life. But every child and every youth deserves a safe, loving and stable home, regardless of their circumstances. Through the comprehensive redesign, our government is introducing new initiatives to improve the quality of out-of-home care.

We commend the many service providers who are de-voting their lives to support vulnerable children and youth. However, sometimes there are gaps, and our proposed changes seek to close these gaps.

Some of these changes have included developing a new framework for what out-of-home care looks like; increasing and enhancing oversight and accountability for out-of-home care; supporting that oversight by adding 20 new positions across the province to support the management, inspection and oversight of out-of-home care for children and youth; and launching the Ready, Set, Go Program, which provides youth in the care of children’s aid societies with the life skills they need, starting at the age of 13, and financial support when they leave care, up to the age of 23, so that they can focus on post-secondary, including the skilled trades, or pursuing employment.

Every child and every youth deserves a fair starting position in life, and our government is delivering that. We hit the ground running by consulting widely in the community with service providers to better serve children and youth. We did that by increasing the number of responsive inspections; by bolstering customary care arrangements to focus on family-based options like kinship and foster care, to ensure children and youth and families have a strong voice in decisions about their care; improving the quality of child welfare data to establish a baseline of common measures across children’s aid societies that can be reported publicly, as well as developing an outcomes-based performance measurement framework; releasing the children and young persons’ rights resource to help child and youth understand their rights and to use their voice; and of course, connecting youth leaving care with more supports to succeed.

We’ve backed this important work with significant investments of over $1.5 billion in the child welfare system to support Ontario’s 50 children’s aid societies, including 13 Indigenous children’s aid societies. That is a historic amount.

As you can see, the Supporting Children’s Futures Act and the Strengthening Cyber Security and Building Trust in the Public Sector Act are not the first steps that we have taken to improve child welfare, nor are they the last. These new proposals build on the work that the government has undertaken over the past several years and will continue to take in the coming years. Bill 194 is an important step towards achieving stronger data protections for all children. Together, we will continue to strengthen families and communities right across our province.

Madam Speaker, I would like to end by thanking my colleague the Minister of Public and Business Service Delivery and his team for all the great work in putting this bill forward.