I’m pleased to be here today to rise and speak about Bill 98, the Better Schools and Student Outcomes Act, 2023. I also want to thank the member for Ottawa West–Nepean for her exceptional and hard work on this bill.

It was very enlightening listening to the member speak today and demonstrate her significant expertise on this file. Her knowledge is also based on the fact that she has children in the school board system, so she can share her expertise and her personal experience with our school board system.

This bill was introduced at the same time as the Grants for Student Needs funding envelope was released for the year, and that’s deliberate. It is pretty typical for the government to present a bill with some ugly things and some good things in it at the same time as they’re presenting an announcement which has far bigger implications on the quality of the schooling that the children in Ontario receive. That’s what happened with Bill 97, a bill that I’ve been working on for some time, and it also happened with Bill 98.

The reason I want to talk about not just Bill 98 but also the larger issues with our school system is, when we’re thinking about how we want to improve the quality of education our kids receive, we need to talk about funding and we need to talk about what is actually happening in the classroom. There’s a big difference between what this government says—its rhetoric—and what is actually happening on the ground in schools and in classrooms across Ontario.

I think about what is happening with the Toronto District School Board, because that is an area I represent. I very carefully read the Toronto District School Board’s announcements. I’ve read their long-term growth and accommodation strategy that looks at where we are going to put our schools and whether our schools have the capacity to deal with the 30,000-plus students who will be enrolled. There will be an increase in enrolment of that amount in the coming years. I also look at how they’re preparing for the 2023-24 year, and from the school board’s perspective, from the parents’ perspective, from the teachers’ perspective, from the education workers’ perspective, it doesn’t look good. What we are hearing is that the TDSB is looking at cutting 522 staffing positions. At a time when we have had year after year after year after year of cuts, it’s another round of staffing position cuts.

Interjection.