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.

You know what are facts, Madam Speaker? Let me actually talk about facts, okay? The facts are, Madam Speaker, that we have increased funding—I just mentioned that: $170 million over three years to support children and youth. Maybe that’s not important to the opposition; it is to us.

We want to make sure every child, every youth is set up for success, which is why we backed that up by investment. We wanted that support to start as early as 13 all the way up to their 23rd birthday with incentive and support so they can get post-secondary education, they can be connected to the trades, whatever it is they want to explore, because we want to make sure every child and youth in this province is set up for success.

Whether you’re in care or not, your circumstances matter. We’ll keep fighting for you to make sure you have a chance to succeed in your community.

I thank my colleague for the question. Quite the contrary, Madam Speaker—if you look at the bill, this bill was developed by sector partners. It was in my remarks. Both the IPC and the Ombudsman were involved, and they both had positive things to say about this bill and the member knows that.

As I said from day one, this isn’t the first and it won’t be the last initiative that we will put forward. We will continue to look at ways, talk to our stakeholders, talk to partners, talk to experts within the field and within the sector to make sure that we look at every single proposal to improve the lives of children and youth in care. Because I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again and again and again, we will do whatever it takes to make sure no child and youth is left behind. But this isn’t the first or last initiative. Bill 188, if passed, some of initiatives that were brought in by the opposition were—

We won’t stop that, even past this bill. As I said, this isn’t the first; it won’t be the last. We are going to continuously put initiatives forward to improve the lives of children and youth in care. Throughout the child welfare redesign, which was initiated a couple of years ago, that has been the theme. It’s paramount that we capture the views and input of everyone within the sector: service providers, those with lived experience. That’s the only way we’re going to get it right. We’re going to continue to listen to everybody who has an input that would help us improve the lives of children and youth in the province.

That’s not going to stop. We’re going to continue to listen to them. We’re going to continue making sure that we get the feedback, because in some cases—maybe other governments in the past had put one initiative forward and forgot about children and youth. It’s not going to happen under this Premier. It’s not going to happen under this government. This isn’t the first and it won’t be the last. We’re going to continue engaging with our partners. We’re going to continue listening to them to make sure that we get it right every single time.

That’s what’s driving the child welfare redesign in our province, Madam Speaker, because we are collaborating, because we are listening, because we are listening to those with lived experience, which is why we’re protecting the history of children and youth in care, something that—

We backed that up by investment and we’ll continue to support them to make sure no child and youth is ever left behind in this province.

Thank you very much, Speaker, and good morning, colleagues.

I am proud to rise in the House today to begin third reading of Bill 188, the Supporting Children’s Futures Act, 2024. Before I begin, I’d like to note that I’ll be sharing my speaking time today with my colleagues: the Associate Minister of Women’s Social and Economic Opportunity and parliamentary assistants the member for Markham–Thornhill and the member for Thornhill. You’ll hear from them, Mr. Speaker, the important foundational work that we’ve done in recent years.

We’re focused on delivering better outcomes for children and youth across the province, including those in the child and youth services sector who are some of the most vulnerable individuals in our province. We’ve committed to ensuring that they are safe and supported in childhood and have the right foundations as they transition into adulthood.

Speaker, we’re here today because we will not leave any child or youth behind, and we’re committed to ensuring that they have every chance to thrive and succeed regardless of their circumstance or history. I say that because while our past is important, it’s even more important to focus on where we’re going.

We listened when sector partners spoke about the need to implement measures that will better protect the rights of children and youth, that will enhance the quality of out-of-home-care services and improve the accountability of service providers. That’s why this bill includes a broad range of legislative proposals supported by important regulatory and policy changes.

Before I review these proposals in more detail, I’d like to share some of the feedback that we’ve heard since Bill 188 was introduced last month. Let me start with Carly Kalish, the executive director of Victim Services Toronto. This is what Carly had to say. She says:

“We commend ... the government for their commitment to improving the safety, well-being and privacy of children and youth in care through the introduction of the Supporting Children’s Futures Act, 2024. Every child deserves a safe and supportive environment to thrive, and these changes mark a significant step toward achieving that goal.... We look forward to seeing the positive impact of these measures on the lives of Ontario’s children and families.”

Building on that, Leena Augimeri, the director of the Child Development Institute, said, “I applaud our Ontario government.... They introduced legislation that shows they do care by enhancing protections and accountability for children and youth in care and helping to strengthen the systems that are designed to help them.”

It’s so special to hear such strong support from voices from within the system. We’ll keep working with them so that every child and youth has an opportunity to succeed.

Our government will continue to work towards a province where all children, youth and families are empowered with the resources and supports they need. Our proposals would, if passed:

(1) Modernize and standardize important safeguards throughout the child and youth services sector. This includes stronger enforcement tools to hold licensed out-of-home care operators accountable, and to keep children and youth safe and healthy.

(2) Create a framework that would enhance privacy protections for those individuals who were formerly involved in the child welfare system. This will be done by further restricting access to records comprised of their personal childhood histories once regulations are developed.

(3) Enable individuals to speak freely about their lived experience and give them more control over what they want to share publicly. These circumstances will be outlined in regulations following further consultations with the sector.

(4) Provide authority to expand the information that individuals working with vulnerable children and youth can be required to provide. This would go beyond formal police record checks, such as offence declarations.

(5) Reinforce the requirement for children’s aid societies and out-of-home care licensees to explain the role of the Ombudsman and how children and youth can contact their office.

(6) And finally, the bill clarifies that early childhood educators can be subject to an offence for failing to report child protection concerns to a children’s aid society. This would be in line with requirements for other professionals, like teachers and social workers.

This bill encompasses a suite of changes that can be grouped into three themes. The first is strengthening oversight and enforcement of licensed out-of-home care. The second is establishing clear and consistent practices, and the third theme is supporting stable transitions.

I’d like to describe the specific actions we’re proposing to take under each theme and how they will foster better outcomes for children and youth. First, by strengthening the oversight and enforcement of licensed out-of-home care, we’re working to enhance the safety of children and youth. I want to be clear that there are many hard-working people in the out-of-home care sector, such as foster and group homes, who dedicate themselves to the children and youth that they serve. Many strive to provide the best possible support to vulnerable young people who are experiencing some of life’s most difficult circumstances. This is hard work, but it’s important work, and they have my profound gratitude for the commitment of supporting those that they care for.

However, not all service providers achieve that standard, and some don’t always operate in compliance with licensing requirements. To us, this is simply unacceptable. Let me be clear: The changes that we’re proposing in this part of the legislation will have little or no impact on the operators who are already complying with the licensing requirements, but in cases where operators are knowingly or repeatedly contravening licensing requirements and putting children and youth at risk, the proposed changes will establish new and enhanced enforcement tools to allow the ministry to take action, and our commitment to young people demands nothing less.

The legislative changes in this bill will modernize and standardize important safeguards in the licensed out-of-home care sector. The amendments would strengthen the ministry’s oversight of foster care and group homes, improve the quality of care for children and youth and introduce additional or strengthened enforcement tools.

These proposals are aimed at enhancing compliance with licensing requirements. They would help ensure that everyone receives high-quality care that supports their health and safety, as well as empowering them to reach their full potential.

I’d like to share a few additional comments that we’ve received since this bill was introduced which relate directly to these proposals. First, from Susan Somogyi Wells, CEO of Family Service Ontario, who says, “[We] strongly support this legislation for its commitment to safeguarding the well-being of our children and youth, mitigating the risks of developmental trauma.”

Julie Despaties, the executive director and founder of Adopt4Life, says, “We’re encouraged to see this recognition of the need for improved safeguards for vulnerable children and youth.... These children and youth deserve our highest commitments, collectively, to supporting their safety and well-being, their healthy development and long-term successful outcomes, including the protection of their privacy and personal information after they have left the child welfare system.”

Again, Speaker, such strong support means a lot, and our government is committed to seeing these changes come to fruition.

I’ll now turn to the second theme that I mentioned earlier, which is clear and consistent practices. By establishing practices that are clear and consistent, we aim to improve the safety and quality of services delivered by all providers. We’re proposing six actions in this area.

First, to improve the safety of all children and youth, we propose to clarify that service providers, such as children’s aid societies, can share personal information with the College of Early Childhood Educators and the Ontario College of Teachers. Service providers are already authorized to share personal information with colleges of regulated health professions and social work colleges. This simply clarifies and spells out that these two colleges are also included. This will better support the safety of children and youth by reducing potential delays in sharing information that could be used to support proceedings such as investigations, hearings and new registrations. This could apply in cases where a college requires information from a society about a verified allegation against an early childhood educator or teacher.

For our second action, we propose to enable the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers to share information in particular circumstances with governing bodies and others, including children’s aid societies. Several professional colleges already have this authority in their governing legislation, including the College of Early Childhood Educators, the Ontario College of Teachers and other regulated health professionals. To improve the safety and well-being of children and youth, we want to make this authority consistent across the board.

During an investigation, this reform would help enable timely information sharing about a member to support responsive action. Currently, if a person engaged in the administration of the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers Act believes that a member poses a risk to others, they would be prohibited by the act from sharing their concerns with anyone without the member’s consent or until after the college has investigated and the results of the investigation are made public.

A practical example of this was when a social worker had their membership revoked by the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers in February 2023, for professional misconduct involving sexual abuse and sexual misconduct with a student. Now, Mr. Speaker, this is important: The college opened their investigation in August 2019, but the legislation prevented them from sharing their concerns with others, such as new employers or other professional colleges, for four years. Unacceptable situations like this are why we are proposing these amendments, and if passed, they’d help us ensure that scenarios like this never happens again.

Again, I want to be very clear that our commitment is to young people. We want to make sure that they succeed and thrive, and young people demand nothing less. That’s why our third action, in order to support the long-term success of adoptions and to keep children safe, is to bring forward future regulations that would require children’s aid societies to do the following for children in adoption-placement settings: conduct safety assessments, create safety plans as needed and create plans of care. Right now, children’s aid societies are required to take these steps for children in care when they’re in other types of placement settings. Our goal is to include similar requirements for adoption-placement settings as well.

The fourth action we’re taking is to strengthen existing requirements for children and youth to know and exercise their rights. This includes additional clarity proposed in the Child, Youth and Family Services Act, 2017, to ensure that children and youth are informed about the Office of the Ombudsman. This change would help clarify the requirement for children’s aid societies and licensed out-of-home-care providers to notify children and youth that they have the right to be informed about the Ombudsman and their role. Vulnerable youth and children deserve to have private and frank conversations about the care that they’re receiving. We want all children and youth receiving services to understand their rights under the act, because the legislation’s paramount purpose is to promote their best interests, their protection and their well-being.

Further, for our fifth action, we propose to clarify that early childhood educators would be subject to an offence for failing to report a child protection concern to a children’s aid society. This proposal would make it clear that all early childhood educators can be subject to the same offence as other individuals who perform professional or official duties with children, such as teachers and social workers, if they fail to report a child protection concern.

Finally, to further improve the safety of those who are in care or receiving services, we are proposing to provide the Lieutenant Governor in Council with the authority to make regulations for information other than formal police record checks, such as an offence declaration, to be required for individuals who are working or providing services within the sector. In addition, our government intends to bring forward future regulations to standardize police record check requirements for the child and youth services sector.

Those are the six key actions we propose taking to establish clear and consistent practices.

Madam Speaker, I’ll now turn to the third theme that I mentioned earlier, and that’s supporting stable transitions. Under this theme, we’re proposing two actions which aim to support children and youth as they transition to adulthood. First, we propose to enhance privacy protections for individuals with previous involvement in the child welfare system. We’ve heard concerns from former children and youth in care about their personal information being held in perpetuity and accessible in society databases. There are many examples when this information has been used negatively to impact their futures. Individuals involved in the child welfare system as children have many details recorded about themselves over the course of service, much in the same way that any parent would observe their own children’s experiences growing up. However, parents don’t permanently record this information, nor do they use it to prevent their children’s ability to succeed in the future. Children raised in care deserve the same respect. Restricting access to and disclosure of these records would create a framework that would protect the private details of the childhood experiences of these children and youth and allow them to regain control over their own information.

I’d like to share some of the public feedback that directly relates to this third theme.

From Carina Chan: “As a former youth in care and a lawyer who practises family law and child protection law, I support the proposed amendments set out in Bill 188.... I have seen first-hand how childhood histories and records can be used as ammunition when former youth in care become parents themselves or seek employment in the child welfare sector, even though they were in care due to circumstances entirely outside of their control. Individuals who were involved with the child welfare system as children deserve to have their personal information kept confidential so they can have a fresh start as they transition to adulthood.”

Likewise, from Nadia George, a volunteer at the Child Welfare Political Action Committee: “A new era is marked! One that could give those who have lived experience in the child welfare system the much-needed privacy and protection rights we deserve. This is something myself and others at the Child Welfare PAC have been advocating for since 2016. Thank you ... for letting current and former foster kids know we matter.”

Speaker, we agree with the Child Welfare Political Action Committee, which is why our government is pro-posing to make changes that would, once regulations are developed, enable individuals who have a history in child protection involvement to publicly identify themselves and speak about their own experiences with child protection, if they choose to do so. This would help clarify the rules for publishing this type of information and give individuals more control and ownership over their own personal stories and experiences.

To all members: The Supporting Children’s Futures Act is not the first step that we have taken to improve child welfare, nor will it be the last. It is simply another important step towards a brighter future for some of the most vulnerable children in youth in our province. The proposed legislative changes, as well as the regulatory and policy changes that I’ve just outlined, move us closer to achieving our government’s vision where no child or youth is ever left behind.

This bill is the result of the collaboration and the valued input of children, youth and families with lived experience in the child and youth services sector. I’d like to thank many individuals who have shared their feedback with us over the past six weeks and those who have attended and presented their perspectives to the committee at public hearings, and we will continue to hear from you as we build a province where everyone has the resources and supports they need to succeed.

I would like to take a moment to thank several people who have made all of this possible. I want to start off with:

—the Deputy Minister of Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services, Denise Cole, for her leadership;

—our many amazing ADMs, but I want to name in particular ADM Linda Chihab and ADM Rupert Gordon;

—from my own team, Sean Forsyth, Kimiya Zamani, Gregory Smith and Chris Clarke;

—of course, the amazing parliamentary assistants Laura Smith, Logan Kanapathi and Nolan Quinn; and

—last, but certainly not least, my chief of staff, a strong voice for the youth and children in care who had so much to contribute to this bill. Thank you so much to Jane Kovarikova for all her leadership and support.

Madam Speaker, with that, I’d like to turn things over to the amazing colleague I have here, the Associate Minister of Women’s Social and Economic Opportunity, Minister Williams.

I thank my colleague for his remarks.

Speaker, let me start by stating that our government takes the privacy and safety of young Ontarians very seriously, so I’m very pleased to be here today to speak in support of Bill 194, the Strengthening Cyber Security and Building Trust in the Public Sector Act, 2024. I’m grateful to my cabinet colleague the Minister of Public and Business Service Delivery for his comprehensive approach to Bill 194 that works towards making the digital world safer for all Ontarians, especially our most vulnerable and the future of this province: the youth and children.

The proposed legislation would help strengthen privacy protections, including those for children whose personal information is held by children’s aid societies. My ministry has complementary legislative proposals before this house through Bill 188, the Supporting Children’s Futures Act, 2024, that was introduced on April 17.

The work in both pieces of legislation is a result of collaboration and the valued input of children, youth and families with lived experience in the child and youth protection sector. And it’s also done in collaboration with partners like children aid societies and service providers as well as First Nations, Inuit, Métis and urban Indigenous communities from across the province. I would like to acknowledge and express my deepest gratitude for the incredible work that these partners do. Their tireless efforts have a profound and lifelong impact on the outcomes of vulnerable children and youth as they transition from care into adulthood.

Speaker, we are here today because our government will never leave anyone behind, and it is especially important that no child or youth is left behind, that they have every chance to thrive and succeed regardless of their circumstances or history. We have heard from sector partners and communities about the need to implement measures that will better protect the rights of children and youth, that will enhance the quality of out-of-home care services and improve the accountability of service providers. That’s why we have introduced a broad range of legislative proposals and a suite of regulatory and policy changes in both Bill 188 and Bill 194 that will support the futures of some of the most vulnerable children in our province.

Today, I want to outline for the House how these two bills, if passed, would result in a safer online space for Ontario’s young people. The children and youth services sector supports a wide range of individuals with diverse needs as well as their families and caregivers right across the province. For example, the sector supports those in need of protection, who have experienced or may be at risk of abuse or neglect. It also supports youth who are involved in the youth justice system, including those admitted into custody or detention to help them find their way and engage with their community. The sector empowers children to overcome barriers and reach their goals.

Our ministry’s legislation, Bill 188, would, if passed, modernize and standardize important safeguards throughout the child and youth services sector. This includes stronger enforcement tools to hold licensed out-of-home care operators accountable to keep children and youth safe and healthy. It will create a framework that would enhance privacy protections of those who were formerly involved in the child welfare system. This will be done by further restricting access to records comprised of their personal childhood histories, once regulations are developed.

The proposals would also enable individuals to speak freely about their lived experience and give them more control over what they want to share publicly. These circumstances will be outlined following further consultations with the sector. They would also provide authority to expand the information that individuals working with vulnerable children and youth can be required to provide. This will go beyond formal police record checks such as offence declarations.

The proposals would reinforce the requirement for children’s aid societies and out-of-home care licensees to explain the role of the Ombudsman and how to contact their office to children and youth. Finally, they would clarify that early childhood educators can be subject to an offence for failing to report child protection concerns to a children’s aid society. This would be similar to other professions such as teachers and social workers.

Speaker, this bill is just another step forward in the work of child welfare, but not the final step. We’ll continue to engage and learn from stakeholders, including youth with lived experience and many others, as we work to improve safety, supports and access to resources for children and youth who are served by the child protection system.

Our government wants children to have a healthy, safe and age-appropriate digital experience when engaging with public sector organizations like schools and children’s aid societies. The proposed amendments in Bill 194 would enable the creation of protections that could help prevent inappropriate data practices that affect children and ensure that software applications support the health and well-being of all students. For example, future regulations under this legislation could include age-appropriate standards for software programs on devices like laptops that are used by students every day at school. These initiatives better protect how children’s personal information is collected and used, and they align with proposed measures that we introduced in the Legislature just six weeks ago.

Taken together, Bill 188 and Bill 194 will strengthen digital and privacy protections for children and youth right across our province. As you can see, this bill is an important element of the government’s ongoing redesign of the child welfare system.

Now I would like to speak to the connection with the proposed work and the broader Child Welfare Redesign Strategy, as it’s key to understanding the context in which Bill 194’s reforms are being proposed. Speaker, my colleagues and members of this House will recall that in July 2020, our ministry introduced the Child Welfare Redesign Strategy. Our government wants children and youth in care and in out-of-home care settings to feel supported and to be set up for success in life. But every child and every youth deserves a safe, loving and stable home, regardless of their circumstances. Through the comprehensive redesign, our government is introducing new initiatives to improve the quality of out-of-home care.

We commend the many service providers who are de-voting their lives to support vulnerable children and youth. However, sometimes there are gaps, and our proposed changes seek to close these gaps.

Some of these changes have included developing a new framework for what out-of-home care looks like; increasing and enhancing oversight and accountability for out-of-home care; supporting that oversight by adding 20 new positions across the province to support the management, inspection and oversight of out-of-home care for children and youth; and launching the Ready, Set, Go Program, which provides youth in the care of children’s aid societies with the life skills they need, starting at the age of 13, and financial support when they leave care, up to the age of 23, so that they can focus on post-secondary, including the skilled trades, or pursuing employment.

Every child and every youth deserves a fair starting position in life, and our government is delivering that. We hit the ground running by consulting widely in the community with service providers to better serve children and youth. We did that by increasing the number of responsive inspections; by bolstering customary care arrangements to focus on family-based options like kinship and foster care, to ensure children and youth and families have a strong voice in decisions about their care; improving the quality of child welfare data to establish a baseline of common measures across children’s aid societies that can be reported publicly, as well as developing an outcomes-based performance measurement framework; releasing the children and young persons’ rights resource to help child and youth understand their rights and to use their voice; and of course, connecting youth leaving care with more supports to succeed.

We’ve backed this important work with significant investments of over $1.5 billion in the child welfare system to support Ontario’s 50 children’s aid societies, including 13 Indigenous children’s aid societies. That is a historic amount.

As you can see, the Supporting Children’s Futures Act and the Strengthening Cyber Security and Building Trust in the Public Sector Act are not the first steps that we have taken to improve child welfare, nor are they the last. These new proposals build on the work that the government has undertaken over the past several years and will continue to take in the coming years. Bill 194 is an important step towards achieving stronger data protections for all children. Together, we will continue to strengthen families and communities right across our province.

Madam Speaker, I would like to end by thanking my colleague the Minister of Public and Business Service Delivery and his team for all the great work in putting this bill forward.

Visiting us from Aurora–Oak Ridges–Richmond Hill is Yan Kiu Chan, the proud mother of our outstanding page captain Jeslyn Chui.

Welcome to Queen’s Park, and I’ll see you both after question period.

Thanks to my colleague for the question.

First and foremost, I’d like to thank the women and men who are doing great work to make sure children and youth in our province are served and protected. That’s what’s driving the redesign of the child welfare system in the province of Ontario.

It was this government that took action. It was this government that said more reports, more discussions are not going to cut it. We need action, which is why we have more inspectors now hired across the province, which is why we have more unannounced inspections being conducted across the province.

I’ve said it many times in this House, and I’ll say it again: When it comes to children and youth, they may be a portion of our population, but they’re 100% of our future, and we will never give up on them. We will do whatever it takes to make sure that they’re served and protected, and back that up by investment.

Mr. Speaker, thanks to the leadership of the Premier and the Minister of Finance and the President of the Treasury Board and this caucus, the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services has received increased funding two years in a row, more than $1.6 billion—

It was this government, through the child welfare redesign, who said we don’t need any more report writing. We want to stand up for children and youth in care in this province now. We want to make sure every child, every youth that is in care is treated the same as every child regardless of their circumstance. That’s what’s driving our redesign. We will never give up on children and youth.

When it comes to the redesign, part of that is the Ready, Set, Go Program, which provides support for children in care as low as 13, supporting them, providing them with the life skills they need at 13, at 15, right up to their 23rd birthday, with financial support, something the previous government didn’t do and something that certainly was not a priority for the—

Interjections.

I’m very pleased to welcome representatives from Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada and the different Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada from across the province who are here for their advocacy day. Welcome to Queen’s Park. It’s wonderful to have you.

A very warm welcome to the representatives from the Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies who are here today in recognition of the 10th anniversary of Children and Youth in Care Day—a day to honour and celebrate current and former kids in care across our province. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

Speaker, if you seek it, you’ll find unanimous consent to allow members to wear pins in recognition of May 14 being the Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies’ Children and Youth in Care Day.

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.

Good morning and thanks so much for the question. Mr. Speaker, I’m very appreciative of the Premier and our government and our partners who are doing great work with Community Living across the province here, which is why we backed them up with support.

We are investing more than $3.4 billion on developmental services this year. That, Mr. Speaker, is over a billion dollars more than the previous government was doing. Now, why do I mention that? It’s because the NDP held the balance of power for three years. You’ve been here long enough to know what you can do when you hold the balance of power. They could have forced the Liberals to invest more in amazing partners who are doing great work across our province. They didn’t. They failed the people of this province. It took this Premier, it took this caucus to stand up for people with developmental disabilities across the province and say, “We will have your back,” just as we have since we formed government.

Interjections.

In fact, I will tell you what they have done. They have voted against every single measure that we have put forward to make sure that the service providers have the tools and resources to serve the people of Ontario. This member has been here long enough, but of course, when the cameras are running, you’ll hear the NDP get up and talk a big game, Mr. Speaker—

Interjections.

Interjections.

Good morning, colleagues.

Speaker, I want to welcome Community Living Ontario CEO Chris Beesley, Jo-Anne Demick and Lisa Tabachnick to Queen’s Park; also, from Community Living Toronto, CEO Brad Saunders, Cooper Saunders and Jennie Chanda and everyone else who is here from the variety of Community Livings across the province.

Welcome to Queen’s Park. I look forward to seeing you at your reception.

I thank the member for the question.

The death of any child or youth is a tragedy.

We’ve reviewed the report, and we take it very seriously. We agree with the Ombudsman. The best interests, protection and well-being of children is paramount in the child welfare system, and our government expects York CAS and every children’s aid society in the province to ensure that children’s and youth’s voices are heard in their decision-making and their well-being.

We will never waver from our commitment to keeping children and youth safe, regardless of their circumstances. That’s what’s driving our comprehensive redesign of the child welfare system—that’s the most recent bill that I introduced last week, the children’s futures act, which the member debated on. We saw that it was passed in second reading. Through the redesign, we have initiatives to improve out-of-home care to make sure that we hold bad actors to account.

Once again, let me make it very clear: We will never waver from our commitment to making sure every child, every youth is safe in this province.

In the recent bill that I mentioned earlier, the Supporting Children’s Futures Act, which we introduced a couple of weeks ago—here in this bill. Mr. Speaker, we are going above and beyond what we’ve already introduced, and I made it very clear in the bill.

The member calls it small steps. Mr. Speaker, I said that this bill is just one of the many steps that we’re taking. The child welfare redesign, Mr. Speaker—never took any action by the previous government, and this member was here. It was our government that said, through the child welfare redesign, we will make sure we won’t leave anyone behind. That means introducing fines and making sure that the bad actors are held accountable. None of these provisions included before; none of these children and youth were being cared for, were being looked after. We’ll make sure that through this bill and other initiatives—

I’d like to welcome Kevin Post, a constituent from Aurora–Oak Ridges–Richmond Hill, who is also here today with the association of Ontario architects. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

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 thank the honourable member for the important question. As I said earlier, when we formed government, 75% of the families were waiting with no prospect of support at all. Today, because of the supports and services under the leadership of this Premier, we have increased the funding to more than double, $600 million, and this year, as a result of the budget—which, unfortunately, so far you’ve voted against, and I hope you vote in favour of it when you have the next opportunity, because in the budget there’s an increase of $120 million more to support families. That will help us more with getting tens of thousands of families enrolled in core clinical services, like the member alluded to.

Unlike before, when families had one route to service—IBI—today, they have multiple opportunities through family foundational services, through urgent response, through entry to school and through care-mediated therapy, and tens of thousands of families are accessing these services because of our decisions.

In our most recent budget, which I hope the member and all my colleagues in this House support, we increased funding by $310 million for the sectors who are doing—

Interjection.

The member talked about supportive living. We increased supportive living funding by more than $2.2 billion. Journey to Belonging is our long-term vision, but we’re making the process easier and more streamlined for families so that they can access services and supports digitally, regardless of where they are in the—

I thank my honourable colleague for the question. We have been listening to the families from day one, when I became a minister in this portfolio, in this very important file for the government and for the Premier. I reached out to the families, to everyone who’s involved, to listen to them, to get that feedback from families, from service providers, from experts and from those with lived experience. That’s why this government doubled the funding of the Ontario Autism Program moving forward.

At that time when we formed government, there were 8,500 families receiving supports and services. Today, thousands and thousands, tens of thousands, are receiving supports and services through multiple streams. The family foundational service, the urgent response, the entry to school and the caregiver-mediated programs are programs that families can have access to the second they reach and register with AccessOAP. None of these programs were available before. Even core clinical service—

Mr. Speaker, I 100% back the program. Do you know why? Because this program was developed by the autism community. It was members of the autism community, those with lived experience, family members, clinicians and experts who are the ones who put this program—and even the implementation team was made up of those from the autism community.

So, yes, I’m absolutely supportive of the program that we have in place. I will continue to meet with families. And I said this from day one, that we will come to work every day to make sure we improve their lives and go home to do better the next day every time we come to work.

Good morning, colleagues. I’d like to welcome Alina Cameron, Tony Stravato, Kate Dudley-Logue, Bruce McIntosh and the many families from the Ontario Autism Coalition who are here for their advocacy day. Welcome to Queen’s Park and I look forward to meeting with them.