The Ben Mulroney Show - The first day of school! Where does our education system rank?

Episode Date: September 2, 2025

- David Piccini, Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development - Sara Austin/ Children first canada If you enjoyed the podcast, tell a friend! For more of the Ben Mulroney Show, subscribe to the podcast! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://link.chtbl.com/bms⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Also, on youtube -- ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@BenMulroneyShow⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Ben on Twitter/X at https://x.com/BenMulroney Insta: ⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠ Twitter: ⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠ TikTok: ⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠ Enjoy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Welcome to the Ben Mulroney show. Thank you so much for joining us on this Tuesday, September 2nd. everybody had a great long weekend. I know that my sons are on their way to school to start grade 10, Brian and John. I know you're not listening, but I wish you the very best on this first day. Here's to a great year ahead. We've got a great show for you. It really is we're touching on all sorts of things, not the least of which is we're going to be talking about the Canadian Geographical Society.

We have an interview at the end of the show today. because they bought the costumes from the famous Monty Python sketch. I'm a lumberjack. And if you don't remember, we're here to remind you. I'm a lumberjack and I'm okay. I'll sleep all night and I work all day. He's a lumberjack and he's okay. He sleeps all night and he works all day.

I cut down trees, I skip and jump. I like to press wild flowers. I'll put on women's clothing and hang. A round in bars There we go I'm a lumberjack I remember that growing up I mean it's not my vintage

but I saw all of those sketches I love them all It was a yeah How could you forget that It's I mean it's it's one of those ones where I hadn't thought about this in years And then I saw this this story And I was like you know what

This is really interesting Yeah How the heck did Monty Python And the Canadian Geographical Society collide in the same orbit. How did it happen? Well, we're going to tell you the story

at 1130. Because it's really interesting. You know what? I have my own Monty Python story. Years ago, I went to the Just for Laughs comedy festival in Montreal. And John Cleese was the host of a gala. And part of the one of the running gags in that gala was that John Cleese was going to retire from comedy after the show

at the end of the show. And so over the course of the show, doing like a competition, like a Canadian idol on how to find the next John Cleese and he needed a host.

So I was the host. I showed up and I was the host. And at the end of the sketch in the most Monty Python way possible, he decided he was going to do something good for the Canadian people and he pulled out a gun and he shot me on stage.

And after he shot me in the chest, I was crawling away and he shot me again in the back. He did that at 7 p.m. and again at 9 p.m. It is a badge of honor that I wear knowing that John Cleese shot me in the back. That is fantastic. It's a great.

I love that. Thank you very much. So one of the reasons we wanted to start with the Canadiana is because we have to be reminded of the good things in life. Because every now and then, the other good stuff that we have is under attack. I knew this was going to happen. I would have put money on it. And I don't bet on anything. I knew that during the air show or after the air show,

somebody would be complaining saying they got triggered by the air show. And that was a reason to end the air show. And yes, just as I predicted, someone pointed out, the air show in downtown Toronto. This is not merely a show for people. It is a deep trauma for the families of Palestinians whose homes were destroyed by Israeli bombings in Gaza. All right. I want to be sensitive here because I cannot take away from the trauma that those people experienced.

However, you are not in Gaza. You are in Canada. This is a tradition we have. And I mean, I could be glib and say, look, unless the planes are dropping bombs, there's nothing to be triggered by. But this is not I met a man years ago in Muscoca who he was a World War II vet and every

time there were fireworks he knew there were going to be fireworks he went into a soundproof room in his house so he wouldn't have to experience the pop pop pop and the explosions because it was triggering to him. That was his burden to carry it was not for us

to make allowances and for us to legislate to the lowest common denominator. This is what Canada is. These are the traditions that make us can. These are the traditions that bind us together. And if that's too much for you, I don't know what to say. It is not, this is a non-starter. You are not going to convince me and you're not going to convince a lot of people

that we have to get rid of the air show because it triggers or is traumatizing. I'm sorry, but I'm not sorry. Anyway, let's get back to the fact that school has started for a great number of kids in Ontario. And the question is, will the forward government get control of what a lot of people believe is a failing system? We got rid of the trustees. That was about finance. That was about management. But what about performance, right?

So there's a compare and contrast between, say, Ontario and the province of Alberta. where in Alberta, Alberta has the lowest per student funding in Canada and yet delivers much stronger academic results. So we, Alberta spend back in 2020 to 2023, approximately $13,500 per student. In Ontario, that's in excess of $16,000. So we spend almost $3,000 more per student. and we get lower results. Alberta is ranked number one nationally

on reading and science and second in math. Apparently they have rigorous standardized testing which includes provincial and diploma exams that help keep grade inflation. Grade inflation is a thing and it's apparently a problem here

in the province of Ontario. We are third in Ontario nationally behind Quebec and Alberta. And apparently we face concerns over grade inflation, due the absence of centralized exams, and so that contributes to inflated grades over time. And despite spending more per student in Alberta, Ontario has not seen clear improvements in standardized test scores, and some metrics show stagnation and even decline. This is, I know that this is important to every government. They want to be able to

show, look, what we're putting into the system, we're getting better students out. And that's not happening in the province of Ontario. We've got to figure that out. We absolutely have to figure that out. I think one of the issues is the absence of centralized exams. That to me seems to be one of the biggest differences between the Alberta system and the Ontario system. In Ontario, because we don't have that, I guess it's harder to get every kid rowing in

the same direction. I'm not quite sure, but it feels to me like that. I would like to see more homework. Call me crazy. I remember when I was a kid, I went to a school that I did not like, but I had at least three hours of homework at night. That's too much. That is too much homework.

The school my daughter was at, she moved schools, unfortunately. She moved for a variety of reasons. But the school she was at, they did exam starting in grade one. Yeah. In grade one. And guess what? The kids adapted. They weren't stressed out about it.

You see kids starting exams in grade 9, frantic, anxiety. Oh my God, so many issues. Yeah. You start them early. They're used to it. Kids are resilient. Kids are resilient and they will adapt to all circumstance. I don't understand why we're afraid to test our kids, why we're afraid to challenge our kids,

why we're afraid to put them up against a clock and willing, like, study for it. And let's see what the results are. It's, I have no idea. But today, optimism abounds because it's the first day of school. And Ontario students sadly are falling behind other provinces in test scores. What's going wrong? Funding, class sizes, curriculum, how do we fix it? Well, we want to hear from you next.

Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney show. Thank you so much for joining us. All right. The question that we have for you at 4168. 870-6400 or 1-3-8-225 talk is schools back in session. And we have been watching a steady decline in terms of the outputs of our students. We're putting a lot of money into the public school system in Ontario. And what we're getting out is not necessarily the best version of our kids.

And how are they going to compete not just with other students across this country, but indeed with other students from around the world? There have to be some solutions that we can bring to bear. there have to be some best practices. So I want to hear from you. 416-8-7-0-6400 or 1-3-8-225 talk. Let's start with Frank. Frank, welcome to the show. Good morning, Ben. Good morning. There should be no embarrassment with the province taking the lead from Alberta and applying and using those standards to develop a new system teaching Ontario. The other thing is that, you know, when it comes to hiring the director of education, because the province of Ontario,

overriding supervisor authority over the trustees, they should be involved in hiring the director of education because it's all from the director of education where the trickle-down effect occurs to the superintendents, to the principals, to the teachers. But Frank, is it an issue with the curriculum? Is it the fact that we don't, the kids just don't have nearly as much homework as I remember? I don't know what the testing is. What do you think it is? the testing mechanism is really important so is the existing culture in the school of passing kids

who really don't meet the requirements so they're actually the poor performance is being condoned by them being brought up to the next grade even if they don't meet or fulfill the requirements the standards in terms of tests i think are key if some of these kids have certain uh a lack of knowledge or capacity to learn certain concepts by doing testing you're able to kind of segmentize, put into segments, different classes or different segments of children in classes, and to give them specific teaching methods that are consistent with where they are, what they're learning. It's only by that they're going to improve, right, Ben?

Well, exactly. You can't fix what you can't track. You can't improve what you don't track, right? So the less testing you do, the harder it is to nail down where the weaknesses are for one kid or another. Hey, thanks so much for the call, Frank. Let's welcome Gord to this show. Gord, thanks so much for calling.

Good morning, Ben, love your show. I think what we have to do is get back to the basics to get these kids to realize how much change they need when they go to the store. But also, more importantly, they have to learn about money, interest rates, all that. Oh, yeah. We need that.

They have to know that going out because when they go out and they don't realize that, they have no idea what this world is challenging them with. Oh, I completely agree. I think, listen, if we could teach kids about interest rates and credit card debt when I went to college, I didn't know the first thing about the first thing. And when I got to college, I was literally walking around on my first day. And they might as well have been just throwing credit cards at me. And I was like, okay, I'll just, I'll take

three of them. And but next thing I knew, I was walking around with thousands of dollars of debt. And I didn't even know how I got there. So I completely appreciate that. Gord, thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Mark, welcome to the conversation. Thanks so much for calling. And we need more competition in the education system. How so? We need a voucher system. We need, you know, money that follows a student. Without competition, you get complacency, you get a monopoly, and we get what we have now.

So, so how would you change the system? Yeah, having a, you know, implementing a voucher system. The money follows a student. But tell me practically what that means. So we have a voucher system. Tell me what that means for a parent if they're not happy with their kid at their school. well the parent can select a new school uh you know we don't have these mandated schools that the kids can go to uh you know we can have specialization schools that specialize in maybe um you know

a french a french curriculum maybe it has a stem curriculum uh whatever the case may be more more competition in the education system well thank you very much mark i appreciate it and you'll remember there was a story that we've covered on this show of the uh rosedale heights School for the Arts, which was originally, it was just a standard, a public school. And the principal essentially willed a school for the arts into creation. And he was, he was there for the entire time. I went to visit that school. It was absolutely, it was an incredible sight to behold, the talent that these kids had. But the TDSB, in its infinite wisdom, decided that in the name of equity, they would get rid of the admission process.

They would get rid of the admission process. And instead of having to sort of display an aptitude and a willingness to sort of study the arts, it was a lottery system. And so all of a sudden there was a decline in terms of the quality and intensity of the artistic direction of the students. And so I don't know how you fix something like that if you're governed by an ideology that is not putting academic excellence first. Not for nothing, by the way. Ontario is among the top six globally in terms of, oh, that's Canada.

Canada is among the top six globally in terms of education systems, but the numbers are trending downward. So pre-pandemic, there was a decline. Canadian scores in math, reading science. They've all declined since around 2000. Math especially has seen the most significant gap. And I have to assume, I have to believe that there are other countries out there. They're picking up the slack.

And when push comes to shove, if our kids have to compete against, like we were talking about before, China, Japan, even the United States in certain places, I do not know that they are going to be ready for what the world is going to throw at them. Hey, George, welcome to the show. Hey, good morning. Well, absolutely, they're not going to be ready, Ben. I'm surprised, like, I can't believe, at 2025, we're having a discussion, government, people, parents, educators on how to teach our kids basic fundamentals, life skills, education, arithmetic, writing, reading. In 2025, are you serious?

What have we been doing? Like, oh, sorry, I forgot. The last decade and a half, we've been teaching about they, then, he, she, how to become dogs, how to piss and cat litterers in the front of the school. But that was more important. All of a sudden, our kids now can't survive and compete on the global level. Let's get back to basics, right? Elbows up, everybody.

Elbows up. It's a freaking joke, Ben. It's a joke when we've done to these kids. Parents are responsible, not the government. Because when we had a chance to speak up, we never did. We were too embarrassed. Deal with the consequences now. Thank you, George.

I appreciate it. All right, we've got Jim. Jim, welcome the Ben Mulroney show. Yeah, Ben, the topic so much. I think it burns on a lot of parents' minds and hearts. So my big thing about it is, one, last year, teachers were asked about an aptitude test of grade 10 math to make sure our teachers are equivalent to be able to teach our children. Yeah.

There's an uproar about it. So our problems are the teachers and the unions. This is ridiculous. So what would you do, Jim? I'm a plumber by trade. Our mathematics, our formulas, everything that we do on a regular daily basis, If we didn't keep up, people would get hurt. There would be property damage.

Why can't the teachers do the same? I think that's ridiculous. So what do you want to see changed at the teacher level as well as at the union level? At the teacher level, I want them tested. Instead of them teaching about genders, teach them how to learn, not what to learn. And stop a race in history. It's getting disgusting in our classrooms, absolutely disgusting. Well, you know, from what I understand, like, so much of it is at the discretion of the teacher.

The curriculum is sort of, is like guardrails, right? And the teachers, the teachers can do a lot of things. There was a video that circulated during the election campaign of a very, let's say, militant teacher, I believe in Niagara, who was explaining all the things that he was going to be teaching his students. And it was, it was all these social justice concepts. And he looked into the camera and he said, my goal is to make sure that after I'm done with your kids, they look at you and say, I cannot believe I'm related to like a dinosaur like you.

Well, put something out to you. Last year, two different teachers. I asked, why haven't my daughter brought home homework in four years? Both teachers responded the exact same way. We don't want parents interfering in the education of our students. So from there, when I made a statement that, how ridiculous that state that that was and that parents had the right,

guess who it wasn't allowed in the school no more? You? Simply because I did. Wait, they banned you from the school? They banned me from the school. I got to stand outside the gate just to pick up my daughter. Well, you can't,

because you complained that your daughter wasn't doing homework? Yes, sir. That got you banned from the school. Yep, Georgina. In the district of Georgina, my daughter and other students, I would assume a lot of them, haven't brought home schoolwork in four years.

Yeah. She's now going to high school, and I am fearful for that she's not prepared. Yeah, the idea, homework for the sake of homework is not what I'm looking for. I'm looking for my kids to appreciate time management, to be self-regulating, to decide, okay, now is the time to stop playing video games, and now is the time to start learning. These are all concepts that come from the burden and responsibility of homework. Hey, Jim, thank you very much. I appreciate it. Thanks to everybody for calling us. Hey, big news for Ontario workers. Barriers are coming down for over 50 professions, engineers, architects, electricians, making it faster and easier to move and work across Canada. We're going to talk about that next on the Ben Mulroney Show. can be forgiven if they hear politicians speak in big bold terms and they they adopt a wait

and see attitude because in this country we are so used to politicians talking a big game showing up for the ribbon cutting and then not doing the requisite work to ensure that the announcement that they make is followed with a policy that actually mirrors that giant announcement. Well, in the case of interprovincial trade barriers, which were a staple of all parties in the last election campaign, everyone promised that they were going to break down interprovincial trade barriers. Some people were probably reticent to believe that it would happen. Well, on the file of labor mobility across this country, it looks like the province of Ontario has actually delivered on doing just that. Please welcome to the show, David Puccini,

Minister of Labor, Immigration, and Training and Skills Development. Minister, thank you so much for being here. Thanks for having me on, Ben. Appreciate the opportunity. Okay, so talk to me about what has changed in the province of Ontario. Yeah, thanks, Ben. So with all, as you said, everybody's talking a big game when it comes to nation building, and it looks like we finally are putting partisan politics aside, building some national

consensus around it. But you're right. I mean, talk is cheap and you've got to deliver. And so we've put in place a legislation backed up by a tough regulation that will require regulatory bodies to ensure that that engineer that's working on a critical component in Alberta can move over to Sarnia. Same company. I've heard the stories. They're waiting for weeks, sometimes months in delay, and they can't work. And that's all changing.

We've passed as of right legislation letting you file with the regulating body work as a right, and the regulating body has to process your claim to completion and your certification, I should say, to completion to ensure people work, and there's no barriers. I mean, a Canadian is a Canadian. We've got to put Canadian workers first. Most people, I think, would think it's insane that a graduate from Memorial University from UBC are held up being unproductive, not working when they come to Ontario. So, so, Minister, what you've really done is you've harmonized across all the provinces,

a lot of the regulations so that if you are in one of these 50 professions, everything from engineering, architects, electricians, if you're working in British Columbia, and then all of a sudden the job takes you to Ontario, you don't necessarily miss a step. Exactly, yeah, you're not waiting in limbo navigating a complex regulatory process. So you still have to register with the regulator. I mean, we don't want people who have records or who've been doing malpractice

or had issues with previous regulatory bodies to then escape and operate with impunity in Ontario. So there's those basic checks, but we've put a 10-day shot clock on all of that to make sure that people are moving and to make sure people can work. And as I said, you can work as a right now after you file with the regulator within 10 days. So you can work within 10 days. What was it like before? So this comes into effect January 1st, 2026. But how long could it have taken forth, say, an electrician or an architect who was crossing provincial boundaries?

Yeah, it could take months. As I said, I was down in Sarnia the other day, and they're doing some major component work that involves some complex engineering, design work. This is stuff that's happened out in Alberta. with our great oil sector and to think that that engineer, that worker is held up for sometimes months. And that's a huge cost to the company, huge cost to the professional. And when you multiply that over every single industry, over day after day after day, we're talking, I don't know how much loss revenue this could be and how much this could

be billions of dollars that just is frittered away because of the inefficiencies. of our system national system yeah absolutely we've quantified that as a 200 billion loss uh in lost economic opportunity productivity like you said i mean the key for me as labor minister is the productivity just sitting around not being productive not contributing to our economy i mean this goes everything from that engineer i mentioned to a francophone teacher uh you know i'm i'm near a base in trenton uh a member of the air force moved into my community, his wife was a teacher, and she was waiting over a month to practice and to teach.

And this is at a time when we need Francophone teachers in Ontario. So this kind of stuff has to stop. We're Canada, and we've got to drive productivity for Canadian workers. And, you know, as far as I'm concerned, you're a Canadian coming from another province. There shouldn't be these barriers. Minister Puccini, so it's based on the information I have, it says that the province of Ontario has struck 10 deals with other provinces and 10. territories. Are there any provinces that are on the outside looking in, or is this clear

across the country now? Well, we've, you know, this is workers coming into Ontario, those MLUs form the basis through which we're doing this. Quebec is always a tough nut to crack, but I'll be sitting down with my Quebec counterpart and have been working across Canada. And it's not just on labor mobility and construction sector as well. I'm really pushing safety certification. harmonization in the construction sector, which is essentially you're doing working at Heights in another province you come to Ontario or Ontario also, Ontario has the best standard, and yet you're still going through additional training doing the same course that you already

did. So we really want to harmonize and champion this. And the bottom line is we've spent so much time on North-South trade, and people are a key component in that, that we've got to start focusing on East-West. Oh, absolutely. And so, but Did you have receptive partners as you were trying to negotiate these deals? Absolutely. I would say probably the best champion's been Tim Houston and his labor minister, Nolan Quinn, Nolan Young, I should say sorry, in Nova Scotia. They've been fantastic.

I met with my New Brunswick counterpart when I was recently out there. They've been very good as well. And Alberta's been fantastic. And my counterpart there came out. So there seems, you know, there's a lot of receptivity and a lot of, you know, I've never seen this in my seven years in elected life, the sort of commitment we have nationwide. And, of course, you're dealing with parties of all political stripes across Canada.

So it's really nice to see. Well, considering the state of the Canadian economy, and we've lost businesses like Crown Royal just last week, how much pressure is there on ministries like yours to right the ship and write the ship fast? Yeah, it's a good question. and there's immense pressure. So we launched the Skills Development Fund,

which is, I think, an acknowledgement that lifelong learning from K to Gray matters and that we're going to face things, whether it's a pandemic, whether it's tariff impact from south of the border, we've got to have a resilient workforce. And you've got to put Canadian workers first. And so what we've announced here

is the first in Canada, Canadian first on as of right for worker mobility. However, beyond that, you've got to make sure they're well-trained. And so we've been working with folks in the steel sector and others to make sure, you know, as the Premier Austin says, we're actually manufacturing steel beams. We've got a tip-building strategy that can put a lot of workers to work here in Ontario, and we want to be a part of that. And so I think that with the increasing challenges we see globally,

the best thing we can do from a labor perspective is ensure we have a resilient, well-trained workforce. and that's what Premier Ford and I are really committed to doing. Minister Puccini, how do you find working with the Mark Carney liberal government? I mean, he touted himself as being different than his predecessor. Are they bringing anything new to the table? Is this truly, in fact, a good partner as you guys try to build this new Canadian economy? You know, I'd say on the labor front, we've had a good partner. You know, on the steel front, they've been very receptive to some of the challenges their steel sector is facing.

I think the devil's in the detail. We're going to want to see those nation-building plans. You know, as you mentioned on the outset about talk from politicians, we're not just going to want to see the nation-building plans, but we're going to want to see movement on the steel procurement. I mean, I'm sick and tired of talking to workers. These are the amendment women on the front lines telling me in Edmonton, they're building a bridge. It's all major components from China. They're having to reweld stuff.

This is Chinese scrap steel. And we really, really have to move quick. And I'll be honest, I'm, you know, spending days on job sites, you know, workers demand that we move fast, just as fast as they do. They get up early, they work hard. We've got to move fast. So I would say good year, you know, but we need to see quick movement from this government. Minister Puccini, the Minister of Labor, Immigration, Training and Skills Develop. this is a heck of an announcement.

Congratulations. It's great to see all the hard work paid off. And one of our major interprovincial trade barriers has come crashing down. Congratulations, sir. Thanks very much. I appreciate you having me on Ben. Thanks. All right.

Well, Canada's kids are in crisis, rising bullying, poverty, mental health struggles are putting a generation at risk. What can governments do and should teens get a say in shaping the future? We're going to dig into the latest report on this. next on the Ben Mulroney show. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney show. And as our kids embark on the beginning of a new school year, it's important to take stock, it's important to take a look,

it's important to drill down to see what is the state, not just of the education system, but the health of our kids within that education system. Please welcome the show, Sarah Austin. She's here as part of Children First Canada, which is an advocacy group, and they've got their Children's First Canada's annual Raising Canada report, which will be released a little bit later today. Sarah, welcome to the show.

Thanks so much for being here. Thanks for having me, Ben. So before we get into the details of it, talk to me about how extensive this report is. What sort of research did you do? How far did you drill down? What exactly went into it? Thank you, Ben. This Raising Canada report is being published by Children First Canada since 2017.

and what we've seen year after year is a measurable decline in children's health and well-being. And we highlight the top 10 threats to children, everything from preventable injuries to vaccine preventable illnesses to mental health, bullying, climate change. We could go on and on. But it's really meant to sort of provide a snapshot of the state of the nation's children. What are our kids struggling with, but not only the problems, but also the solutions we need to improve their lives. And, you know, as kids head back to school, it really shines the spotlight on the fact that

We have a generation of kids at risk. They're struggling in significant ways. Life is getting measurably worse, and they need urgent action. Well, they absolutely all were put in a terrible position during the pandemic. A lot of, they were disconnected, they were isolated, they were lonely. So right then and there, they're already in a hole. I wonder if that is one of the reasons that some of these numbers are just really shocking. And when I read that 71% of kids, age 12 to 17, report.

being bullied in the past year. I can't believe the number is that high. It is a significant number. An overwhelming number of our percentage of our kids are experiencing bullying, whether it's in the classroom, in the schoolyard, or online. They're experiencing it in multiple different forms. And I think for me as a parent, what was even more alarming was to see that only 25% of those students felt that they were supported by their teachers to be able to address it.

Majority of teachers felt that they were taking action, but the kids did not feel that. And it's not to suggest that teachers don't care, that they're not trying, but there's a disconnect between what our children perceive is happening and what the adults perceive is happening, and it really points to the need for much more honest conversations and more tangible solutions. Your organization really looks at, takes a holistic look at the, sort of the idea of the Canadian student, because you look at everything from child poverty to mental health, online exploitation. It's a new world for these kids. I mean, my kids are in the public school system here in Ontario. It's a new world. When I was a kid, we didn't have to deal with

cell phones and the impact of smartphones on kids and on learning. And yet that's part of this, I have to assume. It is indeed. You know, life for our kids these days is significantly different than it was for you and I when we were growing up and for many of our listeners. Ben, your dad was a champion for the rights of children, you know, helped bring the new, you know, that bring into force an international law that protects the rights of children. And while the world is rapidly changing, the rights of our children remain the same to be safe, to be nurtured, to be nourished, to be protected from all

forms of violence. And while the challenges they face are significant, you know, it comes back to the basics of what our kids need to survive and thrive, and we've lost a focus on that. I know that most parents are doing their very best to support their children, but we need more

support. It takes not only a village to raise a child, I believe it takes a nation to raise a nation. It takes, you know, policymakers at all levels working to prioritize their children to make the tangible investments they need in their survival and development to ensure the protection of their basic human rights. Sarah, talk to me now about the issue of mental health, because you guys drill down and say that it's a crisis for our kids as well. But never before in our history have we been able to have more open conversations about issues of mental health. Never before has it been

less stigmatized to talk about mental health. So where is the disconnect there? We see the radical transformation in how we treat mental health. We are much more open, and I'm really encouraged that our children feel safe, being able to talk about it, whether it's with their peers or with their parents or educators or to go online to organizations like kids helpful and to seek support. But with that rise in, I think, awareness and a much more open, culture to seeking support, we're seeing an overwhelming demand that kids are not able to access

the support that they need, whether it's a mental health counselor in their school or to be able to access a counselor within the community-based setting. You know, kids, when they take the courageous step to ask for help or when parents reach out to the professionals, they're often put on a waste list, wait list sometimes for years. That puts kids in a point of crisis where they're having to go to an emergency room and really waiting to the point that, you know, kids are really struggling and their lives are on the line. It should never have come to this. And this isn't, you know, an isolated issue. When we think about the high numbers of kids experiencing bullying or growing up in poverty or experiencing abuse,

you know, these issues compound and are very much interrelated. Sarah, in our few remaining moments, let's move away from the problems that you've identified into the solutions that you're proposing? The report points to solutions and an opportunity to address all the top 10 threats to children. But when we rise above all of that, you know, we really see the need for our concerted effort. We've called for a national strategy that prioritizes children's health and well-being

and the appointment of a commissioner to hold our government's feet to the fire. We want to see a children's budget. Kids represent a quarter of our population. Sarah, can I just stop you for a second? Talk to me about this commissioner. What would that commissioner's role and responsibilities be? It would be an independent officer of government, really to be a watchdog, somebody who could investigate these issues, to hear directly complaints from children or their families,

and to be able to take action and to hold the government's feet to the fire. It's a best practice used in more than 60 countries around the world. Canada certainly has been looking at this issue for more than 30 years, and yet they've failed to take action. It's something that would be a very simple tool. It's a very cost-effective way to draw these issues to the forefront and to ensure accountability. What about, I'm looking at this and you say youth involvement in policymaking is part of your

calls to action. In what capacity would kids be involved in policymaking? You know, there are so many different ways that children can help shape policies that improve their lives. You know, we have a program called the Young Canadian's Parliament where children youth from across the country are involved in identifying the problems they face, helping to create draft bills. They are a sounding board for government.

They helped to shape really. landmark policies that have been implemented even in the past year around a new national school food program or a new national mental health fund children know what it's like to be a kid today is not to say that they are the ultimate decision makers but we know that there is much more effective policies when they're when they're involved things like online safety you know they they they know what it's like to struggle with these issues they have informed opinions and so we're encouraging them you know government to involve children increasingly in these decisions. One tangible thing the government could do would be to lower the voting age to 16. Again, you know, not a revolutionary step. Children are well informed by the age of 16 and

it can meaningfully contribute to holding their government to account. Sarah Austin, this is a wide-ranging, very deep look into the state of our kids. I appreciate all the work that Canada First has done, our children first Canada has done. Tell our listeners where they can find this report and how they can read it. You can go to Children First Canada.org to read the report and urge you to, you know, all of the listeners to read it and to share it with, talk about it with your kids, talk about it with your local member of parliament and call on our Prime Minister to take action. Sarah Austin, thank you very much. All the best to you.

Thank you, Ben. Take care. We're renovating a hotel, expanding our resort, and breathing some life back into the lake house. Out of here. All while raising a family. It's messy, it's real, and it's all us. Exciting. I can't tell if that's your exciting face. This isn't just construction.

This is our life. Who needs sleep? Building Baumler. New series Sunday, September 7th. Home Network, stream on Stack TV. I do.