Speaker, I welcome the opportunity to stand in this chamber and speak on the issue of great importance to Ontario families. During the last election, Speaker, I knocked on a lot of doors. Most of the residents I met were very supportive of our government, but sometimes I ran into people who accused us of making cuts to education. When I told them we were making record investments in public education and that our government has increased education funding every year since we were first elected in 2018, they said they simply hadn’t heard that before.

There’s lots of misinformation out there, but here’s the truth: We are making the largest investment in public education in our province’s history. Let me reiterate a few numbers cited by the minister.

For the 2024-25 school year, we are delivering $29 billion in total education funding. Core education funding includes an addition of $745 million over the 2023-24 school year, which is a 2.7% increase. Mental health funding is up by 577% since 2017-18. Special education funding is being increased to $3.5 billion. After a decade when the Liberals closed over 600 schools, we are doubling the funding to $1.3 billion for the single-largest one-year investment in school building in Ontario history.

These are record investments in public education, yet the NDP somehow believes we are making “cuts.” If we were to double that $29 billion to $58 billion, the NDP would still claim that we are underfunding education. The NDP’s approach is to throw money at problems and then raise taxes to throw even more money at problems.

When it comes to public policy analysis, the NDP and the Liberals focus entirely on inputs. Inputs are important, but you also have to focus on outputs or the overall job the education system is doing.

When our government took office in 2018, the education was failing to prepare young people for the workforce. Thanks to the Liberals’ discovery math introduced years ago, 52% of grade 6 students couldn’t meet the provincial standard in math according to the 2018-19 results from the EQAO.

For that reason, we overhauled the math curriculum, and we are going back to basics to really drill down on core reading, writing and math competencies. I believe we are on the right track, and we can see that in the fact that 89% of high school students graduate within five years. That’s up from 85% just a few years ago.

We still have some underperforming school boards, which is why our government passed the Better Schools and Student Outcomes Act, 2023, better known as Bill 98. School boards oversee a $29-billion education system, so it’s critically important that they are accountable to parents and taxpayers. Our government passed Bill 98 to enhance the accountability and transparency of school boards, improve their governance and leadership, maximize the capital assets of school boards and ensure that school boards are focused on what matters most: student achievement and preparing young people for the jobs of tomorrow.

Passing Bill 98 was a key step toward getting Ontario’s education system back on track. Our province is in the midst of a historic skilled labour shortage. We are going to need at least 100,000 additional skilled trades workers over the next decade to build housing for a growing population. Our government understands that the public education system has a critical role to play in addressing this challenge. For that reason, we are providing school boards with record funding, while at the same time updating the curriculum and demanding greater accountability from school board leaders.

Inputs are important, Speaker, but so are outputs. You can’t simply throw more money at problems, just like the NDP seems to believe.

Speaker, last week, I was glad to join Premier Ford’s funding announcement of $9 million for the establishment of York University’s school of medicine. This new medical school will be the first in Canada to focus on training family doctors that will work towards ensuring Ontarians have access to the connected and convenient care they deserve. It stands as a significant milestone, underscoring our government’s steadfast commitment to improving health care, accessibility and quality across our communities.

I firmly believe that nurturing a new generation of primary care physicians will not only serve to strengthen our communities but also contribute sustainably to the overall health and well-being of Ontarians.

I would like to commend the university for its unwavering dedication to addressing the health care needs of underserved regions.

Furthermore, I am enthusiastic about the forthcoming opening of York University’s Markham campus this spring. This strategic move will embed the university in the vibrant heart of Markham–Unionville, one of the most diverse and dynamic urban communities in our province and country.

As MPP for Markham–Unionville, I pledge my full support to York University’s endeavours in nurturing talent for our province and nation, and I remain committed to advocating for their continued success.

To the member opposite: The government is continuing to support K to 12 education, investing over $23 billion, including $16 billion in capital grants over the next 10 years to build more schools and child care spaces, including a new joint French and English public school in Blind River, a new elementary school, a new secondary school in Ottawa, and additional in other areas, including one in my riding. This includes $1.4 billion in funding for the current school year to support repair and also renewal needs of the schools.

Since the government keeps investing in education, is the member going to support this budget so that we can move forward with the public education sector?

As all Ontarians know, the NDP and the Liberals have a strong passion to protect offenders by defunding the police and also freeing the offenders back to the street ASAP.

This government’s Enhancing Access to Justice Act, 2023, would, if passed, make it easier for more victims of crime to sue an offender for emotional distress and also increase access to justice for victims by making changes to the Victims’ Bill of Rights, 1995, and its regulations, allowing victims to sue for emotional distress and related bodily harm for more crimes, including terrorism, motor vehicle theft, human trafficking etc.

So what specific policies in this proposed legislation does the member have issues with?

Talking about numbers in health care—through the 2022 budget, our government announced plans to invest $1 billion over three years to get more people connected to care in the comfort of their own home and community. We are now accelerating the investment to bring funding for 2023-24 up to $569 million, including nearly $300 million to stabilize the home and community workforce. This funding will also expand home care services and improve the quality of care, making it easier and faster for people to connect to care. We are providing an additional $425 million over three years for mental health and addictions, including a 5% increase in the base funding of community-based mental health and addictions services—providing funding by the Ministry of Health. Expanding the scope of practice of pharmacies to provide over-the-counter medication of common ailments has been very successful—not only the money, but the efficiency and effectiveness—

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—