Our government, under the leadership of Premier Ford and education minister Lecce, is committed to providing state-of-the-art learning environments for students. I’m honoured to rise today to recognize a significant investment from the Ministry of Education of $16 million in my community of Oakville North–Burlington, which will be used for the expansion of Oakville NE #5 public school. This will result in the creation of 138 additional student spaces, helping working families in my fast-growing community. This investment is part of a historic $1.3-billion commitment, the largest single-year funding commitment in the province’s history to get more shovels in the ground faster and to build more schools.

This investment will build 16 new schools and school expansions across the province, create more than 27,000 new student spaces, and 27 of the projects will create more than 1,700 child care spaces.

Since 2018, a total investment of $142 million in Oakville North–Burlington will build five new schools and add over 4,000 student spaces and 352 child care spaces.

I’m so proud of the work our government is doing in my community and across the province as we prepare students for a future with good-paying careers.

I have exciting news about some Ontario teens’ incredible achievements at the Harvard world schools debating tournament. Last month, almost 300 students from across the globe gathered on Harvard’s campus to compete in one of the most prestigious high school debating tournaments in the world.

After 10 rounds of debate on relevant issues of our times, a team of five talented Ontario high school students won the tournament. The debate champions are: Andy Lin, Angela Qi, Michael Peng, Kelvin Fan and Jerry Zhang from the Extraordinary Education Centre Debate blue team from my riding of Don Valley North.

This tournament included Canadian, American, Brazilian and Mexican national debate teams. The EEC Debate winners defeated Team Canada in the grand finale, becoming the first non-national team to win this tournament.

Understanding key issues, critical thinking, logic and well-structured delivery prepare students to shine their skills on the global stage of competition today, and their bright lights will make a positive impact on the world tomorrow.