The petition is entitled “Petition: To Raise Social Assistance Rates.”

Yesterday, I had a chance to meet with the Disability Without Poverty coalition, and I’m here to say that people with disabilities in Ontario are struggling. They are starving, and they are feeling left behind.

So I am proud to sign this petition that was given to me by Dr. Sally Palmer. It is calling for raises of the social assistance rates. We need to at least double ODSPoverty and OW so that Ontarians with disabilities have a chance at survival in this climate. I’ve affixed my signature, and I’m handing it over to Farhan.

I’ve affixed my signature, and I will hand it over to Farhan for tabling.

I’ve affixed my signature, and I’m handing it back it to Farhan for tabling.

Mr. McCarthy moved second reading of the following bill:

Bill 200, An Act to amend various Acts with respect to homebuyers and homeowners, properties of cultural heritage value or interest and certain planning matters / Projet de loi 200, Loi modifiant diverses lois en ce qui concerne les acquéreurs de logements et les propriétaires de logements, les biens ayant une valeur ou un caractère sur le plan du patrimoine culturel et d’autres questions liées à l’aménagement du territoire.

I just wanted to express congratulations for Mark Stoddart, who is not only a friend of our Ontario Poet Laureate, but was also a recipient, if I’m not mistaken, this year of the Scarborough Walk of Fame award.

I want to welcome Filipinos in the 6ix to Queen’s Park, to your House. I also want to say congratulations on a wonderful Filipino Heritage Hoop Fest. Congratulations.

This petition has been submitted by hundreds of constituents from my community in St. Paul’s. It is simply titled: “Demand Real Rent Control Now.”

There are a lot of constituents, a lot of community members in St. Paul’s who are asking for the Conservative government to bring back real rent control, which will help address the housing crisis in Ontario and, of course, in St. Paul’s, along with the affordability crisis that’s impacting St. Paul’s and our entire province, as well as the homelessness crisis. Some of the folks who signed this petition are now living on couches, because they haven’t been able to afford the cost of their rent.

We are asking for real rent control now, so that we don’t have to see St. Paul’s residents go from having rents of $2,500 per month up to rents of $9,000 per month for a two-bedroom condominium in midtown. I absolutely support this petition calling for real rent control, because it is calling for an end to the housing crisis, the affordability crisis and the homelessness crisis created by this government.

Speaker, it is signed by dozens, if not hundreds, of folks, and I want you to know that harm reduction—which this petition is asking for—is health care. The government should address the issue of the drug poisoning tragedy by properly funding supervised consumption service sites in Windsor, in Sudbury, in Timmins—frankly, across our province, wherever they are needed to save lives, and they can do that today.

Over the last four years, many of our small businesses have been abandoned, while this government was busy bailing out big-box stores and granting funds to some businesses that weren’t even located in Ontario.

We called for a ban on all evictions by commercial landlords for the duration of the pandemic and a utility payment freeze for small and medium-sized businesses to help them survive.

A recent Better Way Alliance report on small businesses found some business owners had seen rent hikes of 10%, 50%—some of them doubled from one year to the next.

In 2022, we promised to create a standard commercial lease to help protect our small business owners.

We’ve even called for rent control.

My question is to the Premier. This government denied too many small businesses the support they needed during an unprecedented pandemic. Today, what will you do to protect our small businesses and our commercial tenants?

Many small businesses in St. Paul’s, of course, like Oakwood Hardware—a family business deeply rooted in our community—are hurting. The affordability crisis has hit them, and it has hit their customers. It has hit the artists, the musicians, the single moms, the youth—everyone who calls these businesses a part of their home, a part of their community.

My question is to the Premier. Will you take a moment today to extend your condolences to Oakwood Hardware and a number of other small businesses and families in midtown, in Little Jamaica and across Ontario that have had to see their doors shuttered during your tenure?

In my community of St. Paul’s—the question is to the Premier—we are fortunate to have the John Howard Society community office working tirelessly to support people affected by the justice system and those trying to rebuild productive lives post-incarceration.

JHS has been on the front lines, advocating for a just and reformed bail system. They have offered substantive recommendations to this government’s Standing Committee on Justice Policy. One of those key recommendations was for the government to invest in bail supervision programs that have a proven history and provide a lower-cost alternative to pretrial detention, a practice that is disproportionately applied more to Black, Indigenous and racialized individuals than white individuals for the same and similar charges.

Can the Premier share what investments they have made in the current budget to address the need for more bail supervision programs?

The John Howard Society is recommending deep government investments in programs focused on prevention, intervention and reintegration, as well as robust investments in supportive housing, people, since the overall dismantling of the social safety net by this government has led to an increase in incarceration.

My question, again, is back to the Premier. Hopefully he’ll answer. Why is spending $300 a day to warehouse legally innocent people the status quo, as opposed to lower-cost, effective, community-based interventions like supportive housing?

The government has cut education funding by $1,500 per child since 2018, and we’ve heard colleagues of mine mention that these are the lowest levels of per student funding in over a decade. This translates into lost human beings in our classrooms—caring professionals to actually do the work of ensuring that every kid in Ontario has access to an equitable and inclusive education.

The Minister of Education pats himself on the back and says, “Well, I care about equity.” He threw some crumbs to some of our community members when he initiated the Afrocentric curriculum changes with regard to grades 7, 8, and 9, I believe it was, in 2025. But what happened with this program? Where are the human beings who are actually going to make sure that that curriculum is going to be deployed into our classrooms? There isn’t funding for those human beings.

I also want to draw to folks’ attention here students who are blind. This is an issue that was not on my radar, shamefully, but it’s an issue that David Lepofsky raised with me as early as this morning and also last week when I saw him at the CNIB lobby day. CNIB is located in my riding, and they’re always championing for kids who have visual challenges. I want to express what I learned, and that is that school boards across Ontario, all 72 of them, do not have enough TVIs, teachers for visually impaired students in classrooms. The government talks about wanting to increase literacy, wanting to increase mathematics. I agree with that. There’s nothing wrong with having an academically rigorous education in school. But as the AODA Alliance asked, how can blind students succeed in reading, writing and arithmetic if they cannot learn Braille and other core skills that only TVIs, teachers for visually impaired students, can teach them?

So when I think about the theory of intersectionality and that the cuts to education are impacting the most vulnerable students, students made marginalized, whether they’re Black students, whether they’re Indigenous students, whether they’re special-needs students, whether they’re queer, trans or non-binary students, who are systematically always being bullied, I’ve got to ask myself, how can the government care about equity and inclusion issues when he’s not putting the funding necessary into school boards so they can actually hire caring adults to ensure that equity is at the centre of our curriculum?

Whether it’s ensuring that students who are blind have access to learning Braille, whether it’s ensuring that the Minister of Education is actually listening to the community—Black communities across Ontario have been calling for Afrocentric education, not thrown in like rice in a few grades; we’ve been calling for this, from K to 12, for years. I’ve got hundreds of stacks of postcards from teachers and students that indicate the advocacy of Black teachers, of students, of parents, of organizations like the Ontario Black History Society.

So when the government sits and says we don’t listen to parents, it’s actually pretty offensive, because that’s all many of us are doing: listening to parents, listening to students.

We heard last week at the CNIB reception of a parent of a blind child who had to witness her kid isolated, unable to play with his peers, because of his limitations. Disability, race, gender: These are not limitations. We’ve got to create a society and create classrooms with the correct material conditions so that they can actually thrive. That means paying for the humans who we need to take care of our kids and to teach them, so that they can be leaders.

This petition is titled “To Raise Social Assistance Rates.”

I want to start off by thanking Dr. Sally Palmer, who has been ongoingly sending us petitions to help advocate for people who are on ODSPoverty and OW here in Ontario.

As we know in this Legislature, we are dealing with an affordability crisis.

I can tell you that in St. Paul’s, there are several community members of mine—Cinco and his new wife, Liz, just got married in my community, and they are also folks who depend on ODSP and OW, and they are significantly struggling.

This petition is essentially calling for the government to help people get out of poverty—and that’s what ODSP and OW rates currently are. They are calling for ODSP and OW to be at least doubled, and I stress the “at least” part, because even doubling ODSP can barely get you a one-bedroom with a window in St. Paul’s.

I’m certainly proud to affix my signature on this petition calling for a doubling, at least, of ODSP, OW, so folks can get by—and not just get by, but maybe one day even thrive. And that should include people with disabilities here in Ontario.

We’re incredibly lucky to have the CNIB in our St. Paul’s community, and they’re here today. I want to welcome representatives from CNIB here: Dr. Asha Seth, Arun Seth, Suzanne Decary-van den Broek, Alice Clark and Larissa Proctor. Welcome to Queen’s Park. Thank you for recognizing Vision Health Month.

We invite everyone to join at 12 p.m. for the CNIB’s reception, where they’re advocating for every kid in Ontario to have access to full, comprehensive eye tests before school.

This morning, we have two fabulous guests from St. Paul’s coming to Queen’s Park: Kathleen Christie and Maureen Callon.

Welcome to Queen’s Park, and thank you for your advocacy on health care in Ontario.

To the member who spoke so eloquently about why housing is necessary in his community and about the experience of that retired PSW: Can you explain what types of infrastructure you’d also like to see the government committed to in terms of making life better for Ontarians, for your residents? Obviously we need affordable housing. Can you speak to the benefit of other things like community centres, like libraries, like transit that works?

We know right now that Metrolinx has been dragging their little feet a little bit long in terms of the Eglinton LRT construction. We know that the community in Mount Dennis that’s relatively near to your community as well is also feeling left out of the consultation process with Metrolinx with this government.

What would you like to see in terms of infrastructure, and what is the benefit of infrastructure to housing in your community?

It’s a privilege to stand on the behalf of the fine people from St. Paul’s to speak on this bill with regard to building more housing. Affordable housing is what we’d hope it’s building.

I’d like to ask the member if they feel, from their interpretation of this bill, that it’s actually going to create the real, deep affordable housing that we need in our communities today.

I’d also like to ask the member to reflect on whether or not rent control is something that comes up at the doorstep, day after day, when they’re knocking or on the phone. It’s certainly something that comes up in St. Paul’s.

I’d also like to ask whether or not this bill addresses demovictions and illegal evictions, which are a couple of other things that folks in St. Paul’s are quite disappointed about and are looking to this Conservative government to provide answers, leadership, accountability, so they can feel safe and secure in their homes and not have to worry about being pushed out of St. Paul’s or any other community in Ontario.

In St. Paul’s, we have about 60% or so of folks who are renters, and we know [inaudible] track record—namely, removing rent control back in 2018—has certainly made it very difficult for folks to be able to afford to live in our community of St. Paul’s and across the province, quite frankly.

So I’m wondering if the member can express to me if Bill 185 addresses the foundation of the affordability crisis. Is Bill 185 providing the kinds of diverse housing options that are needed to keep our folks housed in homes where they can feel safe, where they can feel well, where they can step in with a sense of dignity? Are we seeing more transition homes? Are we seeing more supportive housing being built? Are we seeing real affordable housing in a state of crisis, when folks are really struggling with rent, with food, with the basics? Because in St. Paul’s, what we’re seeing is a number of demovictions, and we’re seeing a lot of folks being really concerned about where tomorrow is going to have them.

To the Premier: Over 400 Art Gallery of Ontario workers are on strike, and many of these cultural workers are artists themselves. They’re here today. These are the people who welcome us into the AGO. They set up and they dismount art installations. They hang the art. They provide educational enrichment through tours. They helped raise funds for the AGO’s new building. They clean the gallery. But they are struggling to pay rent and buy food. Because of their hard work, the AGO has become a world-class destination, and yet this government hasn’t increased the AGO’s budget in over 10 years.

My question is to the Premier: Will this Conservative government properly fund arts institutions so their deficits aren’t being balanced on the backs of the least-paid workers? Will the Premier show them the “Monet”?

I mean, one of the government members just said, “Yes, we are.” Well, tell that to CUPE 3903 over at York University, who are on strike right now. We’re talking about teaching assistants, contract faculty, graduate assistants, students, frankly, who are just trying to pull their pennies together, working at their university to afford their education, but also to inspire and enlighten the students in their classes. And it’s pretty shameful when we have government—or any authority, at that—trying to interfere with the rights of workers to strike.

Because you know what? When the government turns their back on you, when nothing else seems to work, workers should have the right to say, “Well, enough is enough and I’m going to fight for my rights. I’m going to fight for the wages that I deserve. I’m going to fight for the working conditions that I deserve.” And that’s part of maintaining our post-secondary sector: Workers speak, student workers speak and government is supposed to listen; and that has not been the case consistently here over the last several years.

I just want to share some words from some of the students that we’ve connected with over the last while. And I must say, two of the strongest groups of lobbying activists, I might almost call them, have been OUSA, the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance, and also CFS, the Canadian Federation of Students. The students come. They’re prepared. They’re engaged. They’re ready to have deep and deliberate conversations on how to make schooling better, how to make the post-secondary sector better. Well, here’s something here that I would like to read from some of the students from OUSA: “Housing and transit:

“Access to quality, affordable housing and reliable transportation is essential to a positive post-secondary education experience. Students entering new municipalities to pursue post-secondary education should have access to reliable transportation and be free from the worry of discriminatory and exploitative rental practices.” These are just snippets.

On sector sustainability, OUSA students said: “All willing and eligible students should be able to pursue post-secondary education. However, the shift from publicly funded to publicly assisted post-secondary institutions in Ontario jeopardizes this reality for some students. Provincial operating grants only account for 31.2% of institutional budgets, while student contributions make up 67%.” I don’t know about you, but again, the government should be carrying the lion’s share, not the students crammed in an apartment or having ramen noodles every evening to make ends meet. I would really recommend that the government, if they haven’t, take a look at some of these recommendations.

Let me see some quotes here: One student says, “Hire more staff and pay them adequately.”

“The wait times for mental health, to see someone, are ridiculous, and I know people who can’t even get their meds filled on time.”

“Expand the number of available counsellors and counselling spots per week so students don’t have to wait a month between mental health appointments.”

Students on affordability: “Students can’t afford anything. The majority of us can barely pay for rent or groceries.”

“School is too expensive, making living unaffordable. Students are drowning. I already work two jobs, and I’m struggling to balance tuition, rent, utilities, food expenses.”

“I’m on ODSP. Increase ODSP.”

All of this stuff, you know, calls for money, and not just kind platitudes, not just promises.

Again, I want to reiterate: We’ve seen a rise of hate, of discrimination, of harassment across institutions, and I want to get behind any legislation—I don’t care which party is putting it forward—that speaks to the need to support our students’ mental health, and not just our students, dare I say, but our faculty. My goodness, the weight on the shoulders of contract faculty, who are, frankly, again, often women, often racialized, often 2SLGBTQIA+—there’s a pattern here to everything I’m saying, you know? I want to support that. I want to support an agenda around ending racism and hate in all its forms, but that requires funding.

And I want to say this as well: Yes, freeze the tuition. Our students don’t have enough to keep paying and paying and paying. The reality is that not everyone has a trust fund, and not everybody has that family support system that they can fall back on, the intergenerational wealth of the bank of mom and dad—or dad and dad, or mom and mom, or whoever it might be. Some folks just have to do it the old-fashioned way of working hard, and when that happens, a tuition freeze is a good thing.

But again, this government cannot balance its budget on the back of international students. You can’t do that one day, and then stand up and applaud them the other day. You’ve got to choose how you show up for all students, and all students should be able to have access to education.

I’m going to read a few of the quotes from—let me see. Where is it here? Where did I find it? Oh, yes—from the Canadian Federation of Students: “The federation calls on the provincial government to immediately begin drafting legislation to protect students’ rights to organize, which will amplify student advocacy both on campus and within the province.”

This is really, important, because—you know, it’s funny. We come here in politics and we all have our little party umbrella and our political beliefs, and then we argue and debate. If there’s one thing that you get from a post-secondary institution, you meet people who have very different opinions than yours. Some of them you might absolutely despise. But post-secondary education gives you the tools to learn how to critically think through some of those different opinions. Regardless of what side we’re on, I’d like to think that that’s part of the reason why all of us ran for politics—to support our communities, to represent our communities, but also to be able to engage critically in the important items of the day, recognizing that there are diverse opinions. If we do not fund our post-secondary sector properly, then we directly impact the level, the content, the complexities of conversations and solutions that we get to work together—in any institution, not only in politics—to make our communities better.

So I just want to say thank you to our post-secondary institutions that are punching well above their weight; that have been chronically underfunded for decades by this government and the previous Liberal government; that have had to see a scholastic quality decrease because our faculties are burnt out, because faculty members are often having to commit to hours upon hours of unpaid labour, emotional labour, supporting their students as pseudo mental health counsellors—because they’re not available, because they don’t exist—

I’m honoured to stand and share a few words on Bill 166, Strengthening Accountability and Student Supports Act.

The first thing I’d like to say before I start is a huge thank you to the Women and Gender Studies Institute at the University of Toronto. I am a graduate, an alumna, of WGSI, and yesterday we had a chance to sit on a panel—myself with about 13 other graduates of the WGSI program—to celebrate International Women’s Day. It was really a good reminder of just how important the post-secondary sector is to the social, cultural and economic health of our province. I was reminded just listening to some of the stories of the graduates on that panel about how incredibly important it is for us to invest in post-secondary so we can have the leaders in law, in politics, in food justice, in the arts, in education, in health care that were there last night.

I just want to say thank you to WGSI. I was a student there back in 2007, a lifetime ago, and my commitment to trying my best to bring equity issues into this House, to grapple with race and gender and class and sexuality and all of our social locations and how they impact our experiences in institutions like politics, I really do owe that analysis, that lens, to WGSI.

We really do need to properly fund our colleges and universities, because there’s no question that they are at the heart of creating our next generation of leaders, and, frankly, at the heart of keeping a sustainable economy, because that’s where our future hard workers will come from.

I want to say that I appreciate the government’s effort to actually name some equity issues that they’re looking to address in our post-secondary sector. Bill 166 claims to want to address the mental health crisis in post-secondary, and that is commendable, as it’s written in the bill, that you want to address that.

You also mention that you want to address things like anti-Black racism, anti-Semitism, anti-Palestinian racism, all forms of racism; homophobia, transphobia. Equity issues will be addressed at universities, reportedly, by this Bill 166. While that is a very good thought—it’s a good idea; it’s a good goal—I worry about the history of this government. I’ll never forget: One of the first things that shocked me in this Legislature was a few years back when the Conservative government slashed funding to the Anti-Racism Directorate. At one point, it had a budget of $1,000 to address inequities here in the province of Ontario.

So it’s a bit mind-boggling to believe, to be frank, that this government is actually committed to addressing those equity issues that I just mentioned, that are in your bill—and I actually support that piece of the bill, for sure, around addressing equity issues and mental health issues—when this is the same government that has slashed hundreds of millions of dollars in mental health supports. This is the same government that literally attacked our public school curriculum and tried their best to literally erase the lives and experiences of 2SLGBTQIA+ community members in curriculum—the same government, if I may just say, that voted down our bill to have gender-affirming health care recognized, and a simple advisory committee of, guess what, trans folks and other members from our 2SLGBTQIA+ community to be able to speak to the Minister of Health. So it’s difficult to believe that these equity issues are really at the heart of this legislation.

Furthermore, as I heard from my caucus and from other caucuses, the independent members—I wasn’t here yesterday, but the thought of the government trying to shut down the voices of women in this Legislature, that’s a significant inequity hours before International Women’s Day. So again, while I am supportive of what have this bill says in writing about addressing inequities and mental health challenges, based on the track record, I have significant worries about whether or not this is actually the case.

And from my experience, from talking to folks—funnily enough, many of whom don’t want to be named—from a lot of post-secondary institutions—we’ve got one institution in my riding. We have George Brown, and we thank God for George Brown, because they have 12 child care centres located around the city, and we have our own Casa Loma Child Care Centre, which is such a beacon of hope for those students who are eager to join our education, early education, care programs. But we also know that many of these programs are graduating students who, within weeks, months, in the industry, realize that they cannot get jobs that allow them to actually afford to live in this province during an affordability crisis. So what happens? We lose ECEs. We lose folks who could be in our communities working, contributing to our economy, if they were able to get the proper salaries that they deserve.

This issue with supporting our post-secondary institutions—and we know that this has been an issue of chronic underfunding for decades, and it is not only the responsibility of this government. I’ve learned in the five years that I was here that the Liberal government certainly had a thing or two to do with chronic underfunding of our post-secondary institutions. But we are here in 2024, and this is the government of the day, the Conservative government. So I wonder why the government’s own expert panel, the blue-ribbon panel, recommended $2.5 billion of investment over three years just to stay afloat. That’s really important: just to stay afloat. So we’re not necessarily talking about being excellent; we’re talking about “just to stay afloat.” Why would this government fund just barely half of that, and what does that message show?

We want to talk about equity. We want to give more students mental health supports. But who is going to do this? Policy needs people power to help implement said policies and initiatives. And if I’m a post-secondary student walking into an office where I’m seeking counsel because I am struggling—maybe it’s a mental health situation; maybe I’ve just been kicked out of my home for coming out; maybe I can’t afford food and I’m not concentrating in class and my grades are slipping. If I walk into that office and there’s no human body there, how do I get the help I need?

So at the crux, this bill is not addressing the financial crisis that our post-secondary schools are dealing with. And in fact, the bill does not address that this government and the previous Liberal governments have sort of, you know, stuck the price tag on the backs of international students.

If we think about international students—you know, you’re coming here. You may not have many friends, unless you’re connected on social media before you arrive. You want to have a little bit of entertainment, if you can, on the side. You want to be able to go to the movies. You want to be able to have a treat at a restaurant. Heck, you might even find someone in this wonderful province and you might want to take them out on a date. These things are highly impossible when your tuition fees are triple or more the tuition of domestic students. And even the tuition rates for domestic students are quite egregious.

So we’re not properly funding post-secondary education. We’re not addressing the staffing crisis in post-secondary education.

Interjection.

Earlier today, the government and other members of the House spoke about the importance of International Women’s Day and the importance of us nurturing the leaders of tomorrow. I would like to ask the member for Parkdale–High Park how important it is to invest in said institutions, in our colleges and our universities, that are nurturing these leaders of tomorrow. Because I suspect it’s impossible—it’s impossible—for us to continue having women CEOs, presidents, chancellors, MPPs, all of these phenomenal women that we want to celebrate on International Women’s Day, without proper funding.

So, when the government’s own expert panel recommends $2.5 billion over three years, and the government invests roughly half that, what’s that impact on our post-secondary sector and students?

Before I begin, I want to thank my mother and my partner for their unwavering support, their love and their endurance during this last year, one of if not the hardest for us three. We’ve stuck through it together. I love you both dearly. And I’m glad to stand, of course, representing you two, constituents of mine and the many other community members in St. Paul’s.

It’s my honour to stand and speak today in recognition of International Women’s Day on behalf of the ONDP official opposition. Each of us in this Legislature has at least one woman in our lives, past or present, whom we could never thank enough for us being who and where we are today. And I have to believe that we would do everything in our power to ensure the amazing women in our lives are well supported throughout all life stages so they can thrive. For those of us who have lost beloved women in our lives, I’m certain we continue to hold their legacy strong, and the life lessons they have left with us.

This year’s International Women’s Day theme centres inclusion. It demands of us that we remember, as Rosemary Brown, the first Black woman to ever run for federal leadership in Canada, said, “Until all of us have made it, none of us have made it.” Said otherwise, no one is free until we are all free. Well, what is freedom? According to the dictionary, freedom means the power or right to act, speak or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint; the absence of subjection to foreign domination or a tyrannical government; the state of not being imprisoned or enslaved.

Social conditions, I would argue, also contribute to women’s ability to be free. We need freedom over our reproductive rights and our choices. We need contraceptives available under OHIP. This government is free to do that today if they so choose and invest the political will to do so. Freedom involves having and enjoying the safety and stability of an affordable home where you can live without the fear of displacement, where you know your rent is never in danger of skyrocketing rent increases without limits. Shout-out to rent control—we can have it any day now if it’s this government’s political will, and it will help women in Ontario.

Housing, shelter, is and should be a human right but, in practice, especially under this government, we are far away from that—very, very far, as far as they are from their 1.5 million homes.

Freedom involves having access to nutritious and diverse food choices. It means not living in fear of food price gouging or having to mix your child’s milk with water to stretch it over their favourite cereal.

Women, we are resilient. We are creative. We are excellent problem-solvers. But this doesn’t absolve the government from their responsibility to adequately fund our education system so we can see the fruits of investment in the very young women and girls we’re all talking to in our communities tomorrow for International Women’s Day at our local elementary and post-secondary schools.

Freedom means having access to a justice system properly invested in by a government that doesn’t re-victimize survivors of violence but instead believes them, takes their cases seriously and ensures they see their day in court. I worry that this cannot get done with the inappropriate and, frankly, dangerous comments we’ve heard from this Premier about his desire for like-minded judges. I don’t want judges with like-minded values of this Premier, who seems to think it’s okay to chronically underfund rape crisis centres, sexual assault centres, to cut victims’ support services or legal aid, or who has silenced the very voices of women in this Legislature. That is not allyship.

And there is no freedom without women’s economic freedom, without equal pay, without safe workplaces without harassment. I believe the government actually voted down a bill on helping to create safe workplaces in municipal workplaces. That’s pretty sad, actually.

Women still haven’t seen the reality of pay equity here in Ontario although the legislation passed some 30 years ago, and this government’s tinkering with pay transparency, well, has barely begun to scratch the surface. We have witnessed this government take midwives to court, fight education workers, all of whom are predominantly women and, frankly, even racialized women at that. We’ve seen them refuse to cover 100% of take-home cancer drugs, for goodness’ sake, even at a time when we see rises in breast cancer.

All this to say, I want to thank women for being strong, for being tenacious, but I know that our strength and resilience isn’t enough; and it shouldn’t be enough. We need to have a government that stands up for all women in Ontario, especially those who have experienced the most marginalization.

I just wanted to thank Bishop Strachan students, teachers and parents for coming out to Queen’s Park—their House—today, singing the national anthem and also singing wonderful holiday carols at the main staircase over the lunch hour.

Thank you and welcome. I hope you enjoy your tour at your House, Bishop Strachan.

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas it has been widely acknowledged that the learning, mental health, safety and well-being needs of Ontario children, including the provision of a ‘normal, stable, enjoyable school year’ are a priority of the Ontario government;

“Whereas we are parents, guardians, education staff and community members concerned about the learning and well-being supports children in Ontario schools are receiving;

“Whereas we continue to experience negative repercussions related to and stemming from the ongoing global pandemic;

“Whereas Toronto, along with Peel region, was most frequently the epicentre of the COVID pandemic (prevalence of the disease on a per-capita basis) in Canada from March 2020 through the Spring of 2022 and, as such, the TDSB worked closely with Toronto Public Health to make modifications to practice in order to keep staff and students as safe as possible;

“Whereas these modifications were associated with significant financial costs to the TDSB and likely to school boards across Ontario;

“Therefore we, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as follows:

“—that the Ontario government” is “to reimburse school boards for the COVID-related expenses they paid out of pocket;

“—that the Ontario government continue to provide pandemic funding for the 2023-24 school year, which will prevent the elimination of hundreds of staff positions within Ontario schools.”

I saw this on my desk this morning and I’m more than happy to table these petitions. I’m going to affix my signature and pass them over to Emma for tabling.

Premier, shelters and transition houses are bursting at the seams. Many children and women have nowhere to go. The sector is facing critical staffing shortages and turnover as wages in this sector have been brutally shut down and stifled because of this Conservative government’s Bill 124. While they should be expanding programs to meet the demand, they are struggling to keep their doors open on shoestring budgets that are not tending to the operational needs.

Yesterday, a front-line worker shared how they are fundraising for food for their clients. Another spoke of how their organization’s funding expired, reversing progress made for women and children fleeing violence.

Again, my question is back to the Premier: Will he commit to ending gender-based violence today by creating a sustainable needs-based funding model for this sector? Will he support these workers and can Bill 124?