As I said yesterday, the FAO’s opinions don’t reflect actual government spending and investments.

And I’ll make it very clear, Mr. Speaker. Again, the opposition sometimes struggles with facts, so I’ll say it as slowly as I can: Investments in the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services increased by more than $630 million this year. Every single program under our ministry has seen an increase of investment.

The year before, the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services received an investment of more than $900 million, $1.2 billion the year before.

Now, what has the opposition done? Voted against every single measure to make life more affordable, make the services more accessible for Ontarians. So of course Ontarians are seeing it. That’s why they returned two members from two by-elections and the NDP were shut out once again in this province—

Interjections.

Speaker, after 34 remarkable years of public service, assistant deputy minister Karen Glass at the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services will be retiring tomorrow.

Karen, on behalf of the people, I want to thank you for your service. Thank you for everything that you’ve done for the province of Ontario. Enjoy your retirement.

Thanks to the Leader of the Opposition for the question. Mr. Speaker, with the rising costs of—

Interjections.

The lead agency that provides the Student Nutrition Program in the city of Hamilton received an additional allocation of $525,000 this year, bringing their total investment to more than $3 million. We’ve also worked with other partners, and those partners are also stepping up.

Mr. Speaker, it was this Premier, it was this government—because the previous government, supported by the NDP, never supported students, never—

Interjections.

Speaker, I’d like to correct my record in Hansard for yesterday’s question on the developmental services sector. In fact, we are investing approximately $3.4 billion this year, which is over a billion dollars more than 2017-18. Of that investment, it’s $2.2 billion of funding towards supportive living, services and support, which is an increase of—

To the Standing Committee on Social Policy, please.

I want to thank both parliamentary assistants and my honourable colleague for the question as well.

Madam Speaker, it’s very simple. When we talked about the child welfare redesign—I’ve said this from the day that I was appointed to this ministry: that no child or youth will be left behind and that we will do whatever it takes, which is why, Madam Speaker, we hired 20 more new staff to do inspections, to do unannounced inspections, to make sure—and I want to thank the vast majority of the service providers who are providing care with love for our children and youth in the province.

But we want to make sure that the bad actors are held accountable, Madam Speaker, which is why we hired more inspectors, which is why we are doing more inspections. We’re doing more unannounced inspections and that’s why, through this bill and through this initiative, we’ll be looking at introducing measures that will further hold those bad actors to account, Madam Speaker.

So, when it comes to protecting the children and youth in this province, we will never waver from that commitment, making sure that they’re looked after.

The amendments here clarify, Madam Speaker, that early childhood educators have the duty to be able to report. Again, at its core, this is to make sure that every child and youth is supported, is looked after, and that, for us, is to make sure that those are held to account. The ECEs, just like other professions, like teachers and physicians, counsellors and child care providers, who already have that—we want to make sure that early childhood educators also have the obligation to be able to provide that information to societies, as most of us have the opportunity, Madam Speaker. Everyone can report, but this now clarifies the role of early childhood educators in the bill to make sure that they have an obligation to report, in case there’s a—

Madam Speaker, as I said from day one, we will leave no stone unturned when it comes to protecting children and youth in care. That’s why, through the child welfare redesign, we have looked at every possible solution. That’s why we’ve had consultations with partners, with stakeholders, those with lived experiences: to give us the feedback that we need to implement policies to protect them. Madam Speaker, we will never waver from that commitment.

As I’ve said many, many times on many occasions, children and youth may be a portion of our population, but they’re 100% of our future and we will do everything we can to provide that protection for them.

Well, Madam Speaker, it’s called freedom of expression. It’s a fundamental freedom in our country. Those of us who have grown up, we have the opportunity to be able to talk about our childhood experiences. You and I can talk about our school and where we attended and the interactions that we had with people. Currently, under the CYFSA, individuals who were formally in care are not able to do that Madam Speaker, and it’s just about their right.

Everyone should have the right to be able to express their—talk about their past, good or bad, and be able to fully express themselves. And we want to make sure that’s captured in this bill.

As far as the support, I can tell you, Madam Speaker, the Ready, Set, Go Program, for leaving care, came with $170 million of funding that was provided to societies to make sure that children and youth are supported at the age of 13 with the life skills they need to succeed and thrive. And after they leave care, they will receive that funding right up to their 23rd birthday, because we want to make sure that they are set up for success in every community. And we backed that up with $170 million of funding.

And some of the other fines for the worst kinds of offences are increased to $250,000. At its core, this bill is about protecting children and youth at all aspects. It’s about making sure children and youth that are in care are receiving the supports that they need to make sure they succeed and thrive.

I’d like to welcome a few special guests this afternoon: first and foremost, Jeffrey Roode—welcome to the Legislature; as well as Jane Kovarikova, Shaida Maleki, Kimiya Zamani, David Steele and Shauna Buttivant and other members of my team who will be joining me very soon. Thank you so much for being here.

Mr. Parsa moved first reading of the following bill:

Bill 188, An Act to amend the Child, Youth and Family Services Act, 2017 and various other Acts / Projet de loi 188, Loi modifiant la Loi de 2017 sur les services à l’enfance, à la jeunesse et à la famille et diverses autres lois.

I thank my honourable colleague for the very important question. Let me make it very clear: We said it, and the Premier has been very clear that we will make sure that no one in Ontario is left behind. Under the leadership of Premier Ford, we are investing over $1.5 billion in the sector, to make sure that everyone receives service. Just to put it in perspective, that is $1 billion more than the previous government was investing, over half a billion dollars more than when we formed government, in supportive living for those who require service.

The previous government simply did not do enough. That wasn’t good enough for this Premier. That wasn’t good enough for this caucus. We said that we were not going to leave anyone behind. We are going to be there to provide them with the service. We’ve been there. I have visited literally every Community Living service, including the one in the member’s riding, to make sure that they know they have a partner in this government, and we will not abandon them like the previous government did. We will—

The member is talking about investment. I’d be more than happy to repeat that. Mr. Speaker, we’re investing over $3.7 billion in the developmental services sector this year. That is a billion dollars more than when we formed government. The member talks about housing. I’d be more than happy to repeat that, Mr. Speaker: Nearly a half a billion dollars more is being invested in supportive living for people in this province who rely on the housing.

And no, we’re not going to stop. We’re going to make sure that every single person in this province who relies on supports and services gets them, because before, in the previous government, they simply weren’t getting that. That’s not good enough for us. We’ll continue to fight for them. We’ll sure that they have the support they need.

I have two wonderful students from our riding of Aurora–Oak Ridges–Richmond Hill participating in the Model Parliament here: Tina Li Yuan Jia and Ethan Yuefan Xu. Enjoy the experience. I look forward to meeting with both of you later on today.

I’d like to welcome a constituent of Aurora–Oak Ridges–Richmond Hill who is also a board member of My Women’s Place Shelter, and all the non-profit organizations that are here today.

I look forward to seeing all of you at tonight’s reception.

I want to introduce Jeff Mole, a constituent of Aurora–Oak Ridges–Richmond Hill, to the House. Thank you for joining us.

I thank the member for the question. I want to make it very clear, we want every child and youth in this province to have a safe, loving, stable home regardless of their circumstances.

The member has probably not paid attention, but I’ve been travelling the province, meeting with families and service providers—and she knows; she’s aware of it because I know that they’re telling her. I know that they’re telling her.

Mr. Speaker, we’ve backed up the work by over $1.5 billion of investment. We have hired more inspectors on the ground to inspect the facilities. Those inspectors are going in unannounced this fall. So there’s not only more inspectors, there are more unannounced inspections that are being done.

We want to make sure that every youth, every child in this province is protected and supported so that they can continue to succeed and thrive in their communities. It’s a commitment we will never waver from.

Interjection.

That investment of $1.5 billion that I mentioned earlier: It’s important to note where it’s going. For the first time in the history of the province, we are making sure that children and youth succeed and thrive not only now but in the future. That’s why we started that support at the age of 13. We continued that support with financial supports up to the age of 23, so that the children and youth that age out of care can have—

I thank my honourable colleague for that very important question. Mr. Speaker, I can tell you, with the rising cost of everything now in the province, we know that the people are feeling it, which is why the Minister of Energy clearly mentioned that we need to do better at all levels of government to make sure we get rid of the punishing carbon tax that adds a cost to everything.

I can tell you, as a government, through a $96-million investment that we’re making through the Ontario Trillium Foundation to community partners, including food banks—on top of that, for our students, so that students don’t go hungry, we increased the Student Nutrition Program. We raised the minimum wage. We’re removing tolls from highways. We kept the 10% savings at the gas pump. Mr. Speaker, we are making life more affordable for Ontarians at a time when we know life is more unaffordable. We ask the opposition to support us in this.

The supports will be there for Ontarians who need it, but under the leadership of Premier Ford, the manufacturing jobs—those good-paying jobs that left the province of Ontario—are coming back, thanks to this Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade.

Again, I ask my colleagues across to work with us, to ask the federal government to remove the punishing carbon tax that adds to the cost of everything in this province, and let life be—

I thank my colleagues from Ottawa Centre as well as St. Catharines for their question and for bringing this important point and question to the Minister of Transportation.

I want to thank the Minister of Transportation for meeting with me earlier to hear my suggestion on this.

To the member for St. Catharines, as the Premier said, I want to thank you very much, to you and Jonathan. Please convey our gratitude for the service that he’s providing to us.

Mr. Speaker, every man and woman in uniform to date, past and present, has sacrificed and continues to sacrifice for us. We will not forget them, which is why we expanded the Soldiers’ Aid Commission by 600% to put $1.55 million to include, past and present, those who served and continue to serve our country, which is why we removed the property tax for all Legion halls. Those who have served us, under the leadership of Premier Ford and our government will not be forgotten, and we will continue to have their back today and in the future.

The members of the Liberal caucus should be the last to talk about integrity when they were facing multiple investigations and charges. I would just point that out.

When it comes to support for children and youth and families across this province, it’s been this government, it’s been this Premier—we just recently announced $330 million in pediatric support thanks to the Minister of Health. We increased funding to the Student Nutrition Program so that no student is left hungry in our schools. We doubled the Ontario Autism Program funding by $300 million and further increased it by 10% again this year. Why? Because none of these were done by the previous Liberal government. And the NDP, when they had the opportunity, the balance of power—

Interjections.

I thank my colleague for the question. I’d be more than happy to tell her why. I’ve done it many times, and I’ll do it again—because the program wasn’t working for the people of this province. Mr. Speaker, 25% of the children and youth who were on the registry were receiving services before. Today, over 40,000 families are receiving supports and services. That’s why.

That party supported a failed program under the previous government. The families told them that.

We started from scratch. We worked with those with lived experience—experts, clinicians—to put a program that was put together by the community for the community. We went with more than that—we doubled the funding, to $600 million. And we didn’t stop there. This year, I announced that we further increased the funding of the Ontario Autism Program by an additional 10%.

We’re doing what they couldn’t do for the people of this province.

We’ve developed a program that was put together by the community for the community. The programs that she won’t list—I will do for her. These are programs that families across the province are accessing every day, as soon as they register on AccessOAP—foundational family services; caregiver-mediated early years programs; the entry to school program; urgent response service. Before, they had access to one service. Today they have multiple streams that they can access—every single family—as soon as they register for AccessOAP.

Once again, Mr. Speaker, the opposition always will come in here and they’ll talk to you about what their questions represent—but they held the balance of power. You’ve been here longer than any one of us. You know the process of Parliament. They could have held the previous government to account and said, “We will no longer support you if you do not double the Ontario Autism Program.” But they failed the people of this province. We’re not going to—

Interjections.

I thank my colleague for the follow-up. Mr. Speaker, our government believes that no student should go to school hungry. That’s why we’ve partnered with organizations—including the Arrell Family Foundation, the Breakfast Club of Canada, the Schad Foundation, and the Grocery Foundation—to improve these programs. The $1.67 million already raised by partners, alongside our government’s $5-million investment, shows how public and private entities can come together to make a meaningful impact on the lives of Ontario students. I’m grateful for the generous support, and I encourage all Ontarians to get involved and support the success of our students. Together, we can provide a strong foundation for their academic achievement and overall well-being in the province—because, again, they’re 100% of our future, and we need to continue to invest in them.

I’d like to welcome to the House Salman Sima and Farzaneh Rostami, who are visiting us today.

Welcome. I look forward to meeting with you after question period.

Speaker, I’d like to introduce my good friend Steve Armes and his son, Liam Armes, to the Legislature today. Steve is the director and chief instructor of Shoshinkan Martial Arts. Over the years that I’ve known him, I have witnessed his service and dedication to community. Welcome to the Legislature.

Speaker, I’m pleased to take this opportunity to acknowledge my chief of staff, Krystle Caputo. She has been an invaluable asset to our ministry and to me personally since I’ve come to this role as the new Minister of Children, Community and Social Services. And before that, she was a great support to both Dr. Fullerton and the Minister of Municipal Affairs. As she takes her next step, I want to say to Krystle, thank you for everything that you’ve done for all of us, and I wish you all the very best.