As a former teacher librarian, it’s my great pleasure to welcome members from the Ontario Library Association as well as the Ontario School Library Association for their library days at Queen’s Park: Michael Ciccone, CEO and chief librarian at the London Public Library; Wendy Burch Jones, the vice-president of OSLA and with the Toronto District School Board; Johanna Gibson-Lawler, the president of OSLA and with the greater Essex school board; as well as Sarah Vaisler, who is the chief librarian and executive officer at Ajax Public Library. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

I’d like to thank the member from Don Valley West for her presentation. At the pre-budget consultations, we had the opportunity to hear from the Ontario Library Association, and they talked about the incredible value that public libraries provide. They also almost were a stand-in for MPP offices during COVID. They offer things like job training, small business support; they have access to broadband as well as children’s programming; access to physical resources as well as digital resources.

One thing that is a grave concern is that over the past 25 years, Ontario’s public library systems have not seen an increase in their base funding. I wonder if the member would like to comment about the need to fund public libraries appropriately.

I’d like to thank the member for her presentation. Recently, on the day to acknowledge missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and two-spirited individuals, I had the opportunity to attend my alma mater, Althouse College, who had taken and repurposed their library into an Indigenous learning space as well as an outdoor area.

Specifically, we are sitting on quite a vast footprint here at Queen’s Park. My question to the member: How would you like to see the outdoor space reimagined to include Indigenous peoples? How can you foresee us making sure that this is a welcome and open space, building on those relationships?