Thank you to my colleague the member for Ottawa Centre for his remarks. He spoke about the financial crisis that is facing our post-secondary sector and the consequences for teaching faculty. Many of those faculty positions are filled by contract faculty who have very precarious job security—no job security, actually—very precarious employment, lack of benefits etc.

One of the things that we heard in committee is the same thing is happening in the mental health services offices on campus, the same thing is happening in the equity and diversity and inclusion offices on campus. They are terribly understaffed because universities and colleges don’t have the resources. Has the member been hearing that in his community as well?

I am proud to present a petition that has been signed by hundreds of Londoners; in particular, those who work at Western University as faculty or staff, as well as at Fanshawe College.

This is a petition calling on the Legislature to stop Bill 166. The petition notes that this government has made significant cuts to community mental health services, which has increased the pressure on post-secondary institutions to provide mental health supports to students. It also notes that the government disbanded the Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, anti-Black racism and anti-Indigenous racism subcommittees under the Anti-Racism Directorate, which has severely limited the fundamental work that needs to go on in this province to address racism and hate, and has also underfunded our post-secondary institutions to such an extent that the equity and diversity offices and the mental health offices on campus are being very limited in the kinds of support that they can provide to students.

Bill 166, instead of providing the funding necessary for those campus offices to do that vital work of supporting students who are in mental health distress and addressing racism and hate on campus—instead, this legislation allows the minister to unilaterally dictate policies on campus, opening the door to unprecedented political interference in the autonomy of our post-secondary institutions.

These petitioners—and I fully agree with them—are calling on the government to stop Bill 166, to use its powers under the Anti-Racism Act to effectively deal with equity and anti-racism in the province, and to significantly increase funding to post-secondary institutions so that they can provide the support that students need.

I affix my signature—

Interjections.

I’d like to welcome the delegation that has joined us today from OCUFA, representing more than 18,000 faculty, academic librarians and academic professionals at Ontario’s universities. In particular, I want to welcome Nig Narain, who is a faculty member at Western University and president of OCUFA; Jenny Ahn, who is the executive director of OCUFA; Rachel Heydon and Melody Viczko, who are from the UWOFA, the faculty association at Western University; Andrew Chater from Brescia Faculty Association; Ozden Sungur from Huron University College Faculty Association; Ben Muller from King’s University College Faculty Association; Patrick Phillips from the York University Faculty Association; Cliff Caines from OCAD Faculty Association; and Dave Mason from TMU faculty association. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

I am pleased to welcome the delegation from OCUFA today, including several faculty members from London: Benjamin Muller is here from King’s and Tom Peace from Huron. Meris Bray from the University of Windsor is also here and Tim Murphy from Brock, as well as Manisha Aggarwal. I had the pleasure of meeting with them this morning and warmly welcome them to this chamber.