I’m glad to see that my students from Scarborough Southwest are here today.

My question is to the Minister of Education.

Schools in Scarborough Southwest are literally falling apart, and it is unacceptable that, despite the urgent facility needs identified by schools and school boards, our children are forced to learn in poorly equipped classrooms.

Speaker, this government claims to be making historic investments while simultaneously committing less than inflation and underspending their education budget by hundreds of millions of dollars.

My question is, how will this government address the backlog of repairs that we have across the province and ensure that our children are in safe and well-equipped classrooms?

Speaker, not only are our schools crumbling, but the government’s continued underfunding of our education system is leading to cuts in teachers and education workers. These cuts have resulted in oversized classrooms, inadequate specialized learning programs, and a lack of mental health support. This has a direct and detrimental impact on our children’s education.

So my question is, again, will this government provide our children with the support that they need, instead of putting pressure on our already underfunded education system?

We need to invest in our schools. In fact, the lack of support for Ontario school boards, including the Toronto District School Board, in the 2023 education budget is deeply concerning. Our government’s failure to provide reimbursements for pandemic-related expenses not only affects the financial stability of the board, but it also has a direct impact on the education workers who provide vital support to our students.

With the potential cuts to nearly 500 positions, we risk losing the expertise and support of educational assistants, child youth counsellors and administrative staff, who are critical to the success of our students.

Many of my constituents have shared their worries about the already underfunded education system and how further cuts would only make things worse.

A parent in my riding, Bethany Lynn-Rice, shared that her son, who has an IEP and is diagnosed with ASD, hasn’t received adequate support due to staff shortages, leading to an unsettling year. Bethany also shared about her daughter, who has been facing bullying, especially at recess, because there aren’t enough supervising staff to supervise during recess. Bethany and so many other parents are worried that cutting more staff positions will only make things worse for her children and for many children across this province.

We have seen far too many school safety issues over the past year as students transition back into in-person learning.

With these funding cuts, we also risk losing important mental health support staff, who are critical to the well-being of our future generation—

Speaker, over the past few months, we have had numerous tragic and terrifying incidents in high schools, including a number of incidents in schools across Scarborough.

Students are experiencing immense difficulty, especially after the two and half years of virtual learning. With the lack of extracurricular activities, students, families and teachers are all worried. They’re scared. They’re worried about these students’ mental health; I know the minister just spoke about it. These students are dealing with trauma and anxiety.

We’ve even had stabbings and shootings in our schools, resulting in multiple deaths in Scarborough.

These students don’t want to hear about the Roadmap to Wellness or the numbers—those are great, but we need real action in these schools. They want to know what resources are in place for our youth in schools and in our communities to ensure their safety and well-being.

I am very delighted to introduce Paul Persaud and Samuel Allicock, two wonderful grade 10 students from Woburn Collegiate Institute who are visiting Queen’s Park to discuss student safety at schools. We’ve had some really tragic incidents of violence at Scarborough schools.

I’m also delighted to introduce the parents and family of our page captain from University–Rosedale, Joel Bozikovic. We have Liv Mendelsohn, Susan Cohen and Alex Bozikovic in the House today. Please welcome them.