I’m pleased to welcome my constituent Craig Smith who is here in the public gallery. Craig and I worked together in this place in 1990. He is now the president of ETFO Thames Valley, and I’m here. Welcome to the Legislature, Craig.

I’m proud to rise today as someone who served on the Thames Valley District School Board as a trustee for 13 years. I was elected in 2000, at a time when public education was under attack by a former Conservative government, and today I am proud to be part of the official opposition caucus that is once again fighting for public education against a Conservative government that wants students to fail.

Speaker, this government does not understand the importance of a strong publicly funded education system. They don’t understand what happens to students and parents when education funding declines.

One of my favourite quotes about education is that it’s the great equalizer and the great escalator. It ensures that every child, regardless of their background, is able to participate and benefit from the education system, and it also ensures that kids get the support that they need to reach their full potential. But what we have seen under this government is a $1,500 decrease in per-student funding since 2018. OPSBA, the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association, says in fact that this is the lowest per-student level of funding in 10 years.

What happens when education is underfunded, and especially at a time when community services are also being underfunded? It means that kids in our schools go without support. It means that kids with the highest needs, kids who are already marginalized, are hurt the most. It means violence is normalized in our schools. We’re seeing a spike in violent incidents that we haven’t seen before. It means teachers are leaving the profession. It means EA positions are not being filled, because the jobs don’t pay enough, the jobs are dangerous and the jobs are not respected by this government. It means shortages in administration.

Speaker, we need to see this government come forward with funding that is going to enable all of our kids to succeed. I call on this government: Support this motion. Invest in education, invest in our kids and invest in the future of our province.

My question is to the Premier. A staff report went to the London city councillors last week warning that Bill 23 will cause a $100-million revenue loss over the next five years, likely resulting in property tax increases. City staff cautioned that Bill 23 will reduce parks and green spaces, limit the city’s ability to invest in low-income housing and cause needed infrastructure improvements to be deferred. It will make it challenging for London to deliver on its approved target of 47,000 new housing units.

Speaker, why is this government creating a huge revenue hole for cities like London and making it more difficult to increase housing supply?

The Upper Thames River Conservation Authority states that Bill 23 will “open up significant holes in the delivery of our natural hazard roles, rendering them ineffective,” and “will negatively impact our ability to protect people and property from natural hazards.”

Speaker, why is this government gutting protections for the wetlands that protect cities like London from flooding risk?

Thank you very much to the member for the question. The example that I used in my comments this morning was Bill 23. This is legislation that—municipalities very clearly said, “This is going to cost us more money. This is going to create new barriers.”

This morning I read a letter from the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority where they said that this is creating more barriers, more obstacles to municipalities, as well as threatening our wetlands and opening up new risks for flooding.

In the case of Bill 23, what I know from the city of London, they’re looking at a $97-million potential hole in the budget over the next five years. I don’t think that what this government is doing is saving the province money. In fact, it is costing municipalities like London and across the province big dollars.

But at the same time, just earlier this week, we heard from the Chiefs of Ontario and First Nations leaders that the government, in tabling Bill 23—so if we’re going to use that as an example of how this government approaches consultation with First Nations, the government blatantly violated First Nations’ inherent domestic and international rights over their ancestral and traditional territories. First Nations were given no opportunity to be consulted regarding the tabling of Bill 23 and I doubt that they had an opportunity with this bill, either.