Speaker, $10-a-day child care is under threat in this city and, I imagine, in this province. Recently, parents in my riding whose children attend Blossoming Minds child care were informed that, as of the beginning of September, $10-a-day child care wasn’t going to be offered by that centre. As you can imagine, there’s a lot of desperation on the part of parents. I’ve been contacted by people at Jackman daycare, I understand the YMCA and a variety of operators are finding that the current funding formula does not work, and that causes huge problems for those operators but even more profound problems for the parents and the children who are looking at complete disruption of their lives.

We’re in a situation where people are facing huge pressures around the cost of groceries, around the cost of housing. They do not need yet another headache—actually worse than a headache—huge disruption in their lives.

I’m calling on the Premier and the Minister of Education to take steps immediately to address the funding formula so that parents and children can have child care they can afford, so that people can continue to go to work and so that they can hopefully continue to try and keep their heads above water when it comes to cost of living.

Today is budget day, a day in Ontario that will impact and affect our communities, our workplaces and schools. Unfortunately, I’m afraid that our children will continue to be left on the sidelines again, with underfunding and underspending—funds which would make a difference and truly leave no child behind.

Children are our most valuable resource, and yet they are left to wait for services they need to thrive, services that if not accessed in a timely manner will affect their future and ours. These are the same children that must flourish to have the ability to be our future doctors, educators and, yes, adults—the same adults who will be left to care for us in our senior years.

Ensuring there is funding to support children with autism or any special need, funding for mental and physical health are all in critical need, extra supports in our schools to assist with the years lost due to COVID restrictions—meaningful, purposeful supports instead of empty promises and slogans.

Budgets are meant to be a lifeline, not a savings account. Today, more than ever, we need a budget that is focused on our children and youth. Let’s not lose sight of what needs to be fully funded for our valuable resource to grow and thrive, not just live and survive.

While today should be no surprise, I am hopeful and optimistic that this year’s provincial budget will have real investments for our future: our children.

Staffing shortages are having a severe impact on our schools, robbing our children of the supports they need to learn, to be safe, and in some cases, to even be at school.

As one Ontario principal says, “We are not staffed properly to support students. We can only respond to emergencies....” The Minister of Education has been frantically pointing fingers in every direction instead of taking responsibility and coming up with a plan to fix it.

Where is the plan, Speaker? Will we finally see it in today’s budget?

We have over 40,000 teachers who are qualified, certified and in good standing with the Ontario teacher’s college who are choosing not to teach in our schools because of this minister’s policies.

Meanwhile, we have an attendance problem in high schools because why bother going to school if you’re not going to learn anything today? And more than half of principals say they’ve asked parents to keep their children with special needs home. This is serious, and it deserves a better response than finger pointing from this minister.

So, I repeat, will we see a plan to address staffing shortages in today’s budget?