in si de ha lto n. co m O ak vi lle B ea ve r | T hu rs da y, A ug us t 11 ,2 02 2 | 6 ABOUT US This newspaper, published every Thursday, is a division of the Metroland Media Group Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Torstar Corporation. The Metroland family of newspapers is comprised of more than 70 community publications across Ontario. This newspaper is a member of the National NewsMedia Council. Complainants are urged to bring their concerns to the attention of the newspaper and, if not satis- fied, write The National New- sMedia Council, Suite 200, 890 Yonge St., Toronto, ON M4W 2H2. Phone: 416-340-1981 Web: www.mediacouncil.ca insidehalton@metroland.com facebook.com/OakvilleBeav @OakvilleBeaver WHO WE ARE Publisher and Chief Executive Officer Neil Oliver Vice President, Content, Community and Operations Dana Robbins Regional General Manager Jason Pehora Director of Content Lee Ann Waterman Regional Managing Editor Catherine O'Hara Managing Editor Karen Miceli Director of Distribution Charlene Hall Circulation Manager Kim Mossman Directors of Advertising Cindi Campbell and Graeme MacIntosh Director Creative Services Katherine Porcheron CONTACT US Oakville Beaver 901 Guelph Line Burlington, ON L7R 3N8 Phone: 905-845-3824 Classifieds: 1-800-263-6480 Advertising: 289-293-0620 Delivery For all delivery inquiries, please e-mail kmossman@metroland.com or call 905-631-6095. Letters to the editor Send letters to insidehalton@metroland.com. All letters must be fewer than 320 words and include your name and telephone number for verification purposes. We reserve the right to edit, condense or reject letters. Published letters will appear in print and/or online at insidehalton.com OPINION TO LEARN HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR OWN CONTENT VISIT INSIDEHALTON.COM The upcoming school year is quickly approach- ing, and the provincial government has released its Plan to Catch Up to sup- port students' success. This plan will cultivate the best learning environ- ment to help students pur- sue knowledge and skills. Notably, the provincial government continues to provide historic levels of funding for education. A central pillar of this plan is to ensure students are learning in a safe envi- ronment. The chief medi- cal officer of health has provided updated health and safety measures that will be in place. An additional focus of this plan is to expand stu- dent learning supports. This includes a $175-mil- lion investment to en- hance literacy and math tutoring. Moreover, the province increased the Special Education Grant by $93 million to $3.25 bil- lion for 2022-23 to prevent and remove barriers for students with disabilities/ special education needs. Both parents and stu- dents need to know that classroom learning re- flects the job market of to- day, and the future. The el- ementary math, science, and technology curricu- lum have been modern- ized, which has not been done since 2005. Students will gain practical and fundamental skills that in- spire confidence. Students are gaining practical skills because of the revised career studies course that includes per- sonal financial manage- ment, budgeting, and fi- nancial planning tools, as well as providing opportu- nities for students to in- vestigate careers in high- growth industries. There will be greater exposure to STEM (science, technolo- gy, engineering and math- ematics) subjects for all students from kindergar- ten to Grade 12. Finally, this plan is backed by unprecedented levels of funding. The pro- vincial government is de- livering a record invest- ment of over $26.6 billion for the 2022-23 school year. This figure represents the highest public educa- tion funding allocation in Ontario's history. The province is supporting the creation of more than 3,000 front-line staff with an in- vestment of $304 million. Additionally, the prov- ince is fulfilling the com- mitment to invest $14 bil- lion to build new schools and repair existing schools with an allocation of $2.1 billion for the 2022- 23 school year. This plan creates a learning environment to set students up for suc- cess. I want to wish all stu- dents a successful school term. Stephen Crawford is the MPP for Oakville. He can be reached at ste- phen.crawford- co@pc.ola.org. PROVIDING THE BEST EDUCATION POSSIBLE PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT MAKING HISTORIC FINANCIAL COMMITMENT TO OUR STUDENTS, WRITES STEPHEN CRAWFORD Recent stock market re- turns have been very poor. Is it time to sell, or is this just a normal part of investing and should you remain invested? Stock market returns have generally rewarded long-term investors who stayed invested during both good and bad times. Investing in stock can come with some risk. Bond returns are lower than stock returns over long periods of time. There is a relationship be- tween risk and return. After a stock market de- cline of 10 per cent, the average cumulative re- turn over the next one, three and five years was strong; specifically, 13, 35 and 69 per cent. After a stock market de- cline of 20 per cent the re- turns were 22, 41 and 72 per cent. After a stock market decline of 30 per cent the returns were 24, 16 and 50 per cent. This information comes from the Fama/ French Total U.S. Market Research Index from 1926 to the present. All num- bers have been rounded off. Over a long period of time, stock returns are generally higher than bonds and are usually more volatile than bonds. That is the reason why most investors own both stocks and bonds allocat- ed according to their spe- cific situation and finan- cial objectives. Peter Watson is regis- tered with Aligned Cap- ital Partners Inc. (ACPI) to provide investment advice. Investment prod- ucts are provided by AC- PI. ACPI is a member of the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada. The opinions expressed are those of the author and not necessari- ly those of ACPI. Only investment-related prod- ucts and services are of- fered through Watson Securities of ACPI. Wat- son provides wealth man- agement services through Watson Investments. He can be reached at www.watsoninvestment- s.com. SHOULD YOU SELL YOUR STOCKS? PETER WATSON Column SIGN UP FOR OUR WEEKLY NEWSLETTER AT INSIDEHALTON.COM A red-tailed hawk visits a backyard garden on Douglas Avenue. Do you have a great local photo you'd like to share? Send it to sleblanc@metroland.com, along with a brief description. Alan Holdway photo SNAPSHOT STEPHEN CRAWFORD Column