I want to thank the member from Ottawa Centre for your words.

There are a few things: We know that the resources aren’t there to support the mental health of students when they’re in crisis. We also know that campuses are places of very lively debate, and sometimes very intense debate. You spoke a bit about creating opportunities for dialogue.

What I see in this bill is that the minister is actually going to have unilateral powers to intervene, which makes me very uncomfortable. But there is a real need to have fora where students and professors can talk about really difficult issues and bring the temperature down at the same time. Can you speak to that, please?

Thank you to the member from Don Valley East, and particularly for the reminders about the cuts to actual funding supports for domestic students.

After my PhD, I taught for 11 years in a university, and I’ve certainly seen the increase of international students and the stresses that they’re under, and the exploitation that they’re experiencing. We have an institution that’s based on the exploitation of international students and the exploitation of the existing talent of the graduates of those very same institutions who are precarious workers. That includes library and support staff.

Now, I doubt that the government intends to be transparent about this aspect of how universities are being supported, but I know that when students learn about the exploitation that underpins their education, they’re really shocked. They’re really upset. They’re asking themselves, “Do I want to be part of this? Is this what it means to get an education?”

So my question is, what do you think the message is to students and Ontarians when our post-secondary institutions are based on exploitation?

My question is for the member from Burlington. Highly educated contract lecturers make up 50% of those teaching at our colleges and universities. The pay is abysmal. There are few, if any, benefits, and contract lecturers have to reapply every year for yet another short-term contract. It is ironic that so many of those nurturing the learning and success of upcoming generations are low-wage, precarious workers.

Is there anything in the government’s plans to address the inequity and starving of people who are doing so much of the teaching?

I want to thank the member from London West for a very thorough presentation.

The post-secondary sector has been chronically unfunded—wages for contract lecturers are minimum wage; people still paying off their PhDs; no time to share with students; doubling of class sizes; international students with the pressure of their families’ life savings riding on their backs; successive policies that have basically put the post-secondary sector on fire, and a bill offering up what I’d say is the equivalent of a hand-held fire extinguisher.

Do you see these conditions as being root causes of the mental health crises pervading the post-secondary sector?