Thank you to the great member from Scarborough Centre for raising this important issue.

As minister and as a mother of three university-aged daughters, I personally understand how important it is to support post-secondary students’ mental health and create the right conditions to help young people succeed in their post-secondary journey.

I’m proud to say that since day one, our government has taken action to support a healthy Ontario—and that includes in our 2023 budget, where we outlined our continued investment of $26.5 million in mental health supports for post-secondary students across the province. That ensures more social workers, psychologists and support staff on our campuses and virtually to support our students when they need it most. Because we know that the post-secondary education journey can sometimes be tough, our students deserve to have the resources they need to navigate those challenges and ultimately thrive and excel.

Speaker, our government understands that improving mental health supports for our post-secondary students to succeed will create a stronger and healthier Ontario.

We have been investing in programs that support students wherever and whenever they need help, because we want them to know that they are not alone and that no one should ever suffer in silence. This includes supporting initiatives like Good2Talk, a mental health helpline solely for post-secondary students, that is available 24/7/365, through phone, text or even live chat.

We also support a new virtual mental health app called Get A-Head, which is available to students at all publicly assisted institutions across Ontario and that they can access whenever they feel like they need help or someone to talk to.

And these supports are on top of those offered on campuses at our colleges, universities and Indigenous institutes.

Speaker, through these investments, we will continue to bolster mental health supports at institutions to support students throughout their post-secondary journey and set them up for success.

To all the students out there, including my own daughters, with exams coming up and beyond: Always prioritize your physical and emotional well-being.

I send all students best wishes on their upcoming exams.