I want to thank my friend from London North Centre for his remarks this morning and for his work, and the member for Sudbury—for their work in making sure that educational opportunities are afforded to people who have interacted with our child protection system.

I wonder if the member could take any of the time now in this exchange to talk a little about any stories—we can leave the names out—of which you’re aware, where people who had interacted with child protection followed Jane’s proud example of using that opportunity to make Ontario a better place. I hear you loud and clear. That’s what we should be doing with the treasury in this province—we should be using it to make sure people can have an opportunity. So tell us about those.

Well, I’m happy to share that for children who are crown wards who are transitioning out, Laurentian University in Sudbury has a program where they offer free tuition. My colleague the MPP for Sudbury as well as my colleague the MPP from London North Centre have worked with the university around London. We have worked with Laurentian University where children who are aging out, who are crown wards, get free tuition, and they get supported while they go to university. That has been life-changing for every single one of them who has been able to take advantage of this program.

We are talking 25 young people in London and—

Le plus de transparence, le plus d’imputabilité que tu as avec ceux qui s’occupent des enfants, ceux qui s’occupent—de continuer leur accès, c’est toujours important. C’est quelque chose de bien. C’est quelque chose qui aurait dû être fait avant, mais, je te dirais, j’aimerais amener ça une étape plus loin, où on est certain que c’est seulement des compagnies à but non lucratif qui s’occupent de nos enfants.

This government has been in power for six years, and the previous government six years, the Liberals—no base budget increase. Think of everything that has changed. It is almost impossible for those agencies to give the people who work there a pay increase because the cost of heating, the cost of electricity, the cost of Internet, the cost of cellphones, the cost of everything has gone up, but their base budget has not. They cannot recruit and retain a stable workforce because they cannot offer good jobs.

All of this could change instantly if we had pay parity, if we realized the importance of community-based children’s mental health workers and paid them what they are worth. It would attract more people to the profession, keep them in the children’s mental health system for the good of all kids.