Thank you to my dear colleague for asking a very important question. Writing, reading and math are very important for our children’s future. Every single one of the pages, the young people here, need to be well prepared for their future. No matter when they go through high school or when they graduate from high school, they need very well-trained reading, math and science for their future.

Thank you for the question from the opposition side. It is very important that we need to carry on supporting the francophone communities in our education sectors. That’s why we are investing more in education. If we have the opportunity to read about our budget for this fiscal year, we may see that there is a $2.1-billion increase in investing in the public education sector. That is one of the reasons why we are supporting this bill: because we are investing more in education than ever.

This is very important to me, because we need to always understand our own jurisdiction. We don’t cross our border. We don’t step on other people’s toes. We help each other so that we can be a board that can help our students move forward. That’s why in this legislation, we need to provide more funding for school boards for trustee training so that they know what they should do and what they shouldn’t.

The Minister of Education also announced that we are investing more than $180 million for 2023-24 in math and reading support for Ontario students in our classrooms and at home. This is building upon our previous $200-million investment with support to students with our four-year math strategy. The numbers go on and on. I don’t know why you are not supporting this one, but this is very well-supported education—

Speaker, as a strong believer both in parliamentary democracy and public education, I’m pleased to join today’s debate and provide my full support for both the Minister of Education and his game-changing legislation, the Better Schools and Student Outcomes Act.

Speaker, whenever I speak with constituents and parents in my riding, education is almost always top of mind. In my social media group, I have over 100 parents’ groups. Families in Markham–Unionville have made it clear to me a number of times that they strongly support Ontario’s public education system, but they believe that the education system needs to be understandable and navigable for all parents, and it needs to be focused on the fundamentals—reading, writing and math—which, of course, includes financial literacy.

To quote the report issued by the 1994 Royal Commission on Learning that was established by the then-NDP Premier Bob Rae, “Helping children master basic reading and writing skills is a critical first step, and every teacher of young children must be proficient at it.”

Speaker, I’m very optimistic about the future. We are building up Ontario. We are building up Ontario’s auto industry for the future of electric vehicles and EV battery production, encouraging the growth of a strong and resilient life sciences sector and attracting billion-dollar investments by manufacturers who know that our province is open for business. In short, Speaker, we are building a modern and advanced economy right here in Ontario.

But, Speaker, if we want to grow these sectors and if we want to attract billion-dollar investments to our province, Ontario must have a well-educated and highly skilled workforce. And at a time when Ontario is facing the largest skilled labour shortage in a generation and more than 40% of jobs in Canada are at high risk of getting disrupted by technology and computers, it is critically important that we prepare the students of today for the jobs of tomorrow.

When our government took office five years ago, we knew we had to update the curriculum to better help our students meet the needs of the modern labour market. More specifically, that means: making financial literacy and digital proficiency key priorities; investing $200 million to support a four-year math strategy; teaching valuable transferable skills such as leadership, communication, collaboration and critical thinking; promoting the skilled trades as a top-choice career path for young people; and increasing awareness of and accessibility to apprenticeship programs.

Last week, I had a very interesting experience. My water pipe in my laundry room leaked, and I called for a plumber. He came, he got it fixed, and he charged me $280 for two hours plus materials. I talked to him: “Man, if you work five days a week, 52 weeks a year, you’ve got more than $70,000 a year for one job per day.” Then I said, “Do you know what? If you get three jobs a day, you earn more than our Premier.” He smiled at me and said, “Do you know what? I got six jobs today.” This is how we want our young children to have a better job for the future and a career—also, improving science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, learning.

The good news, Speaker, is that our government has implemented many updates to the curriculum, and we are getting the job done across the province. The bad news is that approximately 15,000 Ontario students do not graduate high school within five years, and non-graduates have higher rates of unemployment and lower-than-average incomes.

As Ontario’s economy increasingly becomes a digital and global economy, we can’t afford to leave our young people behind. We need to take concrete and effective action, now. As you know, Speaker, our government recently announced that we are investing more than $180 million in classroom supports for students to boost their reading, writing and math skills. Reading and writing proficiency is critical to lifelong success. If a plumber cannot read the manual, how can he repair or install anything?

This is why we are delivering a $109.1-million investment for 2023-24 to help more students build stronger reading skills. This includes supporting nearly 700 reading-focused educators in classrooms who can help work one-on-one or in small groups to help students who need additional support in literacy; new tools and approaches in the curriculum, ensuring early readers experiencing challenges get the support they need; introducing new early reading screening for students in senior kindergarten to grade 2, to ensure they receive the necessary fundamental skills and early intervention in reading they require.

We are also building upon our four-year, $200-million math strategy by investing an additional $71.8 million in math recovery that will support nearly 400 new math-focused educators in the classroom, double the number of school math coaches in classrooms to provide direct support to teachers and students, introduce one math lead per board to lead curriculum implementation and support math culture in classrooms, provide subsidies for additional math qualification courses and professional learning for new teachers, and expand access to digital math tools and continue virtual tutoring services to provide additional support for students.

Speaker, these new initiatives to support students further demonstrate that Ontario’s government is working for families. But, Speaker, it is clear that if we want to truly reform the education system to prepare our young people for the jobs of tomorrow, we need legislative action. In the event that our legislation is passed, the Better Schools and Student Outcomes Act will allow the minister to establish new key priorities to ensure students have the skills and knowledge they need, especially in areas such as reading, writing and math.

Speaker, I would love to walk my honourable colleagues through every section of this legislation, but my time is limited, and this bill is quite comprehensive. So instead, please allow me to focus on the fifth pillar, which is all about providing consistent information and approaches to student learning.

The current system simply isn’t meeting the needs of students in terms of learning the basics of reading and math or adequately preparing them for the labour market. Parents feel as though they are kept on the outskirts of their children’s education, and they aren’t sure how they can help to improve the system for their children. Well, Speaker, our government believes that parents should be in the driver’s seat when it comes to their children’s education, and the Better Schools and Student Outcomes Act will enshrine parental rights, should it pass. This would include requiring all school boards to provide and promote parent-friendly information as outlined by the minister. Parents would be provided with frequently updated provincial information for parents that will spell out their rights, roles and responsibilities within the education system.

Our legislation will support consistency in the delivery of mental health education and services, and promote inclusive language on special education in French versions of the Education Act and the Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2001.

And, Speaker, the Better Schools and Student Outcomes Act will help the minister work for families by establishing formal guidelines for a transparent and predictable curriculum review process that ensures the curriculum is reviewed on a regular basis and that it reflects future labour market needs. We are now using iPhone 14. The previous updated curriculum was 2009, which was iPhone 1—never updated in the last 14 versions of iPhones. We need to update regularly.

We are already taking action to support standardized and consistent student learning by investing in mental health and math supports and implementing literacy screening. As I mentioned earlier, Speaker, the Minister of Education has already taken many actions to update the curriculum to include more math and science, and focus on financial and digital literacy.

The Better Schools and Student Outcomes Act will build on these actions, Speaker, but I am especially excited about the proposed handbook for parents. All too often, parents feel helpless when they encounter a big government bureaucracy that they feel does not reflect their views and does not listen to their concerns. That is especially the case when I speak with new Canadians whose first language is not English. Many of these folks worry they may get into trouble if they express any dissatisfaction with the education their children are receiving, and that is only if they are listened to.

We are fortunate to live in a free society, Speaker. And in this free society, this government will always side with parents, giving them a voice. Clearly laid out information for parents is an excellent idea that deserves our full support.

Speaker, I hope that all of our honourable colleagues on both sides of this House support our government’s legislation.