I’m excited to share the heartwarming experience of my recent visit to Crosby Heights Public School. The eagerness of the grade 5 students to understand the workings of the provincial government and my role therein was truly inspiring.

As I engaged with these young minds, their curiosity and enthusiasm were encouraging. They asked insightful questions and displayed a genuine interest in the legislative process and its impact on their lives. They also wanted to know what my roles are, what do I do at Queen’s Park, and how I can represent them as their voice. It was a reminder of the importance of fostering civic engagement from an early age.

This visit beautifully aligns with my community event, the April Monday Matters initiative that was just organized recently. We strive to connect with our constituents and address issues close to their hearts.

I’m grateful for the opportunity to interact with the future leaders of our province, and I look forward to continuing our efforts to promote civic education and engagement in our community.

They’re not here yet, but they will be joining us very soon—grade 5 students from Fern Avenue public school, with their teacher, Lisa Nave.

Welcome.

Our government continues to make record investments to support the next generation of Ontario students, including those with special needs. We’ve announced a three-year program backed by $6.2 million and targeted supports for students with disabilities to pursue co-operative education opportunities. It’s a pilot program designed to connect students with special needs to good-paying jobs.

We’ve also increased funding for the behaviour expertise amount to $39 million for the 2023-24 school year.

And we are providing $10 million in investment for the summer of 2024, to provide transition programs and additional staffing for students with special education needs over the summer months.

Our government is providing historic investments into education to ensure that students get back to basics; learn the foundations of reading, writing, math; and prepare for the jobs of tomorrow.

Our government has increased base funding by $700 million just this school year alone, investing over $26.7 billion—the largest ever in Ontario’s education history.

TDSB student enrolment decreased by about 4% from 2019 to 2020 while, at the same time, their per pupil funding has increased by 8.7%. After running a series of deficits over the last 20 years and increasing school board staffing on the sunshine list, the TDSB should focus on prioritizing students and stop subsidizing services for non-public-school students.

Under our plan, schools are being built. They’re being built faster, efficiently and effectively so that students have increased access to a place to learn and prepare for the jobs of tomorrow.

Across Ontario, too many students are not getting high-quality, effective French immersion because of our teacher shortage. There are French immersion classes being filled by teachers who speak no French; others are experiencing turnover of four or five teachers in a single year.

Learning French is important for employment opportunities, for cultural appreciation and mutual understanding between anglophones and francophones. But you can’t learn French if your teacher doesn’t speak French.

When will we actually see serious, long-term solutions, so that every child in Ontario who wants to learn French has the opportunity?

This petition is from the Elementary Teachers of Toronto, and it’s asking the government to stop the cuts and invest in schools that our students deserve.

There’s been quite a bit of discussion about the number of cuts. The inflationary cut to our schools is $1,300 per student, per year, since this government took office, and that totals billions of dollars for school boards. This is the reason that almost every school board in this province is facing a funding shortfall this year.

This is not just a one-year thing. The TDSB mentions it faced a $63-million funding shortfall last year. There’s a $23-million funding shortfall this year. Every year, the TDSB trustees are asked to make cuts. They’re not provided with the funding just to continue the services that they offered the previous year, and that is on this government.

There’s also the government—the TDSB was instructed by the government to use the reserve funds to get through the pandemic to provide computers and other services that students needed to get through the pandemic. That reserve fund was never re-established by this government, so those cuts are also impacting our students. And the net impact is that our students do not get special education. They have larger class sizes. They do not get the health supports. We have an epidemic of mental health issues among young people these days, and they’re not getting the supports that they need.

So this group is asking the government to fix the education formula, to stop this year-after-year round of cuts, because our students deserve better.

I fully support this petition. I will pass it to page Armaan to take to the table.