It is my privilege to share that on May 10, I joined the Minister of Education, Stephen Lecce, to announce an investment of $33.4 million for a new school in Etobicoke–Lakeshore. This new public school investment will create another 823 student spaces and 88 licensed child care spaces for families in south Etobicoke.

I’m happy to note that the new Etobicoke City Centre Elementary School is the fifth major school investment for Etobicoke–Lakeshore during my tenure as MPP. That’s over $135 million invested in schools and linked child care spaces in our community. I’m proud to advocate for and deliver these much-needed investments for our fast-growing community, to support working families and young learners. Two out of these five schools, St. Leo and Holy Angels, are expected to open in September 2024. The new Holy Angels school will accommodate 600 students and have 88 child care spaces. There will be room for 500 students at St. Leo, along with 49 child care spaces. The new and improved Bishop Allen Academy and St. Elizabeth school are anticipated to open in September 2027, with 1,300 and 600 pupil places, respectively.

I also want to share that for the upcoming 2024-25 school year, the Toronto Catholic District School Board will get nearly $1.2 billion in education funding, which is an increase of over $15.6 million from the current school year; the Toronto District School Board will get $3.3 billion, an increase of $68 million from the current school year.

First of all, we are building infrastructure. And first of all, I have to thank the Minister of Education for being in my riding on Friday to announce a new public school for our growing community. In that area where we’re growing and building, we’re building another 825 student spaces and another 88 child care spaces, which is just huge for families. Thank you again to the Minister of Education for this infrastructure build.

Also, what we’re looking for in some of our communities is—we have aging infrastructure when it comes to community centres, and we need that extra little help. We see a lot of our malls are changing. A lot of our seniors would walk around the malls, but our malls are being redeveloped into townhouses and different types of housing—affordable housing—because of our initiatives from our government. Once again, thank you to the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing for helping us build more housing, but for that we need some help with some community space.

I’m asking the parliamentary assistant, if you can help me: Explain what’s in the budget to help with community space for our growing communities.

Frankly, I’m actually quite surprised, as a member of the justice policy committee, where the member opposite also sits, that you missed it. We talked about training; we’re talking about education. The proposed approach maintains the existing requirements to become a police officer, which are completion of secondary school or its equivalent. Nothing is changing. The member opposite keeps going on and on: “We’re going to have less training.” It’s the same now. We applauded the police officer from the van attack on Danforth. You applauded him. That person, when they applied for the job, did not need a post-secondary degree.

Stacey, whoever you are, thank you for calling in to your councillor. I’m sorry your MPP did not share that information with you, but there are no changes to the education requirement. It is the same across Canada.

What I also want to mention is that when you mention the—through you, Speaker, when they mention the Mass Casualty Commission, we heard during that committee that there is going to be more training once you become a police officer. So to the member opposite: Voting no is voting against public safety. Will you support this bill?