It is an ironic question from the members opposite, who have voted against 3,000 additional teachers in Ontario classrooms today. In TDSB, a board that has 10,000 fewer students relative to 2018, they have $120 million more. We’ve hired additional education staff, and we passed a bill to do it quicker.

I would have hoped that the members opposite would have worked with government, like other parties did, to support acceleration of certification, as we cut the timelines by half. That was our commitment. We did it alone, without support of members opposite.

And we launched a recruitment action plan specific for French educators in Ontario that has yielded over 400 new French-language graduates last year—1,000 additional French-language candidates registered relative to the year prior.

We know there’s more work to do. But let’s work together to ensure all children have access to a certified teacher, an issue that is of contrast where the members opposite do not want retired educators in the front of class.

It is not going to be surprising to Ontarians to hear members opposite defend the bureaucratic incompetence that takes place in many school boards in this province. But members opposite seem to believe it is acceptable for a board that is the largest real estate holder in the province of Ontario, responsible for $20 billion of assets, that sits on $300 million of unspent maintenance funding, that has $150 million of proceeds of dispositions sitting in cash—they’ve tripled the amount of sunshine list workers.

It’s about time school boards get a simple message to work to advance the interests of children instead of the interests of administration. Our message is clear: Balance your budgets and do what every school board in this province will do.

I want to thank the member opposite for the question and the partnership as we work together to build schools across Ontario.

We are absolutely committed to building more schools. It’s why I was proud to stand with the Minister of Finance, on behalf of the Premier, to announce the historic more than doubling of funding to build more schools faster in this province for the people of Ontario. We’re talking about over $1.3 billion of investment; it was historically at $550 million. This will yield more than double the number of schools we build per year.

For French-language education, we have invested a quarter of a billion dollars to build roughly 18 new schools and 16 school additions. We’ve created over 7,000 spaces within our schools, and likewise, over 900 licensed child care spaces—affordable child care spaces for French-language families.

We know there’s more to do. It’s why our government has stepped up with a historic investment to build, to invest and to grow our French-language school system.

The Minister of Francophone Affairs and I have worked together to cut through the red tape and to attract, and we’re seeing some result: 1,000 additional French-language candidates registered on the recruitment portal just last year; 151 additional internationally trained French-language teachers, newly certified by the college of teachers.

Mr. Speaker, I was proud to stand with the Minister of Colleges and Universities to more than double the amount of teacher placements in University of Ontario français and the University of Ottawa.

Together, this is going to make a difference till we bridge the gap and ensure all children have access to a qualified teacher in Ontario.