LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF ONTARIO
Monday 3 April 2006

EDUCATION STATUTE LAW AMENDMENT ACT, 2006

Mr. Toby Barrett (Haldimand-Norfolk-Brant): I found the presentation by the member from Oak Ridges captivating. I say that as a former secondary school teacher and a former member of OSSTF.

I really feel that the actions of this present Minister of Education fly in the face of any legacy he may wish to have from Bill 78. This particular minister promised a new transportation funding formula to keep the buses running, and he failed to deliver. He promised a new rural funding formula to keep our schools open. Again, he failed to deliver. As a former teacher, granted, I will give this minister an A for announcement, but I give him a D for delivery.

As the member for Oak Ridges explained, what we see here is a shuffling of money, a robbing of Peter to pay Paul, if you will. Obviously, Peter is not happy, and even Paul begins to question what's going on with this kind of shuffling of the deck.

As their education critic will know, schools are closing across Ontario, northern Ontario, and in particular rural Ontario. This bill ignores the promise, the commitment, to bring forward that new funding formula to keep the schools open. Many people in small-town Ontario voted for the McGuinty government specifically around the commitment to keep schools open. That promise has not been kept.

There's certainly been much discussion about teacher testing. Again, as a former secondary school teacher, I do agree with Premier McGuinty's statement that he agrees that teachers should be tested. My question now is, who got to McGuinty? What happened?