I do thank the member opposite for the question. We do agree; these are the most exceptional children within our care. It’s why this government has announced an $8.6-million investment to enhance and renew the facilities that lodge these kids. It’s why the government actually appointed inspectors to ensure compliance. It’s why this government announced a permanent executive director and a clinical manager and a new lodging policy that enhances safety through regulation.

We are committed to investing in supporting these kids, recognizing there are about 520 kids within our care and 610 staff that we have in place. We’ll continue to support them and provide compassion, hope, opportunity and training for these children, whom I visited at these various lodgings and schools across Ontario. We are committed to their success, Speaker.

But you talk about a track record—the member opposite will need to explain to those families why you opposed the funding to enhance those lodgings, why you opposed the increase in special education funding for those kids, why you opposed the hiring of 3,200 EAs to help the most vulnerable in our schools. While they’ll have to explain that to the families of this province, we’ll continue to invest and support the success of the most exceptional kids within our care.

Thank you to the member from Flamborough–Glanbrook for this question. I’m proud to announce in this House for the first time since we last rose ahead of the holidays that our government has landed deals with the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario and the French teachers’ union, which represents over a million children having peace and stability in their lives for the next three years.

As our government goes back to the basics of ensuring foundational learning, we can now provide a sense of certainty to families that their children will be in school learning with their educators, with their friends and with the stimulus of extracurriculars, clubs and sports. All of this is important to producing a well-rounded student who graduates with a competitive advantage as we help them ensure they’ve got the skills to get a good-paying job.

We are committed to stability for families, and we will stand up for children and their families to keep them in school right to June.

Our plan to get back to basics and back on track is working. Ontario is the second in the nation in reading, writing and math; we are in the top 10 in science internationally and top 15 in math globally.

To build on this, we recognize we have to start early, which is why the parliamentary assistants to the Ministers of Education and Health joined me to announce that we are introducing a new kindergarten curriculum that will require mandatory, explicit daily instruction in literacy and in math, supported by the Ontario Human Rights Commission.

We are committed to ensuring kids learn life and job skills that allow them to get a good-paying job, own a home and achieve the dream of this country. We’re going to continue to invest and support back to basics in Ontario schools.

Mr. Speaker, we are proud as a government, as the Progressive Conservative Party, to have cut child care fees by 50% for working families in this province, saving anywhere between $8,000 and $10,000 per child.

The NDP cannot have it both ways. The NDP is on the record urging this government to sign the first deal available, which would have omitted $3 billion for those operators, which would have omitted for-profit child care in London and in communities across the province—a third of our operators are for-profit—because of an ideological aversion to a small business, often a woman, who runs a for-profit child care operator.

We are advocating to the federal Liberal government to demand more funding for our operators. Why don’t you get on board and support this government, and stand up for all operators and all families in this province?

We’re going to continue to reduce fees, we’re going to continue to create spaces and we’re going to continue to urge the federal Liberal government to step up with funding to support our operators, support our parents and support our kids, because all families will benefit from affordable child care in this province, Speaker.