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February 22, 2023

43rd Parliament, 1st Session

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Hansard Transcripts

vol. A

Hansard Transcripts

vol. B

Votes and Proceedings

Orders and Notices

Hansard Transcript 2023-Feb-22 vol. A (PDF)

L043A - Wed 22 Feb 2023 / Mer 22 fév 2023

LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF ONTARIO

ASSEMBLÉE LÉGISLATIVE DE L’ONTARIO

Wednesday 22 February 2023 Mercredi 22 février 2023

Orders of the Day

Your Health Act, 2023 / Loi de 2023 concernant votre santé

Members’ Statements

Anti-bullying initiatives

Labour dispute

Congenital heart disease

Coldest Night of the Year

Shelter services

Health care

Heart Valve Disease Awareness Day

Transportation infrastructure

Who Are the Jews? exhibit

Project Arrow

Wearing of shirts

Introduction of Visitors

Legislative pages

Hazel McCallion

Question Period

Health care

Government accountability

Municipal development

Skilled trades

Health care

Indigenous economic development

Health care

Health care

Police services / Services de police

Public transit

Electricity supply

Autism treatment

Housing

Gender-based violence

Agri-food industry

Birthday of member’s husband

Introduction of Visitors

Introduction of Government Bills

St. Thomas-Central Elgin Boundary Adjustment Act, 2023 / Loi de 2023 sur la modification des limites territoriales entre St. Thomas et Central Elgin

Introduction of Bills

Chosen Family Day Act, 2023 / Loi de 2023 sur le Jour de la famille choisie

Honouring Our Veterans Act, 2023 / Loi de 2023 visant à rendre hommage à nos anciens combattants

Heart Valve Disease Awareness Act, 2023 / Loi de 2023 sur la sensibilisation à la cardiopathie valvulaire

Petitions

Social assistance

Health care workers

Social assistance

Health care workers

Land use planning

Social assistance

Volunteer service awards

Health care

Health care workers

Orders of the Day

Your Health Act, 2023 / Loi de 2023 concernant votre santé

The House met at 0900.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Good morning. Let us pray.

Prayers.

Orders of the Day

Your Health Act, 2023 / Loi de 2023 concernant votre santé

Ms. Jones moved second reading of the following bill:

Bill 60,

An Act to amend and enact various Acts with respect to the health system / Projet de loi 60, Loi visant à modifier et à édicter diverses lois en ce qui concerne le système de santé.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Would the minister care to lead off the debate? I recognize the Minister of Health.

Hon. Sylvia Jones: It would be my honour to lead off today’s debate. At the start of government leadoff, I want to indicate that I will be sharing my time with my two parliamentary assistants, MPP Robin Martin, the member for Eglinton–Lawrence, and MPP Dawn Gallagher Murphy, the member for Newmarket–Aurora. This is the first piece of legislation that we will introduce together and I appreciate the opportunity to share some of the incredible work we’ve been able to accomplish improving access to care across Ontario. Both parliamentary assistants are strong advocates for their communities, and I’m proud of the team we lead together at the Ministry of Health.

Speaker, I would be remiss to say that this is a piece of work from individuals. It is a piece of work that is the culmination of engagement with health care practitioners, clinicians, stakeholders and indeed many, many individuals within the Ontario public service who had a part to play in making sure that your Ontario health care act is here today. I want to thank them very much for their input.

Earlier this month, our government released Your Health: A Plan for Connected and Convenient Care. The plan focuses on providing people with a better health care experience by connecting them to more convenient care options closer to home, while shortening wait times for key services across the province and growing the health care workforce for years to come.

The plan lays out a broad series of initiatives under three pillars: the right care in the right place, faster access to care, and hiring more health care workers. Designed to work together and work for people, these pillars will deliver connected and convenient care in hospital emergency rooms; in community settings like pharmacies, community organizations and doctors’ offices; in long-term-care homes; and through care delivered right in their own homes. Through the Your Health plan, our government is taking action to strengthen all aspects of health care, particularly where people access it most frequently. The proposed Your Health Act, 2023, supports our efforts to do so.

To provide the right care in the right place, this bill supports the expanded role of pharmacists, enabling people to connect to care closer to home, at their local pharmacy. Expanding the role of pharmacists can save a trip to the doctor, while giving family doctors and nurse practitioners more time for appointments with people who have more serious concerns. One example of this is allowing pharmacists to prescribe medications for 13 common ailments at no extra cost to patients. We have already seen great success in this initiative, with over 40,000 Ontarians accessing this service within the month of January.

Pharmacies are one of the most accessible entry points in our health care system, and I look forward to working with our partners to explore other ways we can expand this work.

If passed, the proposed legislation would also result in amendments to certain health professions acts, which would permit the making of regulations that would allow certain out-of-province registered health professionals to practise immediately in Ontario while waiting for the registration with their respective Ontario health regulatory college. With new as-of-right rules, Ontario is the first province in Canada to allow health care workers from across the country to immediately start providing care.

That’s the kind of innovative solution that will help bring reinforcements to the front lines of our health care system, because a doctor from British Columbia shouldn’t face bureaucratic delays to be able to practise in Ontario. These proposed changes are another way we are looking to reduce administrative barriers and to help allow qualified professionals to work in Ontario quickly and efficiently.

Under the leadership of the Ministry of Long-Term Care, we’re also proposing amendments to the Fixing Long-Term Care Act, 2021, to enable the making of regulations that would allow these health professionals to work in the long-term-care sector as well.

Another aspect of the proposed legislation is repealing the Independent Health Facilities Act and replacing it with new legislation: the Integrated Community Health Services Centres Act, 2023. The health care landscape has changed significantly since the enactment of the Independent Health Facilities Act in 1990. There is a need for a legislative framework that better responds to current surgical demands in a manner that is integrated with the broader health system, prioritizes safety and patient needs, and better reflects the modern health system landscape and priorities.

This proposed change would support the expansion of surgical, procedural and diagnostic services in the community, which is another important part of our plan for convenient and connected care. We are reducing wait times by increasing access to surgeries and procedures such as MRI and CT scans, cataract surgeries, orthopedics, colonoscopies and endoscopies.

For over 30 years, community surgical and diagnostic centres have been partners in Ontario’s health care system. Like hospitals, community surgical and diagnostic centres are held accountable to the highest quality standards, the standards Ontarians deserve and expect across the health care system.

To further support integration, quality and funding accountability, oversight of community surgical centres will transition to Ontario Health. This improved integration into the broader health care system will allow Ontario Health to continue to track available community surgical capacity, assess regional needs and respond more quickly across the province and within regions where patient need exists. This is another way our government is making it easier for people to connect to care and access publicly funded services in more locations. And our government is clear: Ontarians will continue to use their OHIP card, not their credit card. Under Premier Ford, that will never change.

The final part of this bill is to enhance privacy obligations related to certain health administrative data through proposed amendments to the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. These proposed amendments will benefit patients by supporting improvements to the health care system through linking de-identified data, while enhancing privacy protection, transparency and accountability for entities that collect, use and disclose government data. The Information and Privacy Commissioner, which provides oversight to ensure compliance with the proper handling of data, has collaborated in the development of our proposed approach.

Over the last several months, I have travelled across Ontario to the front lines of our health care system. I’ve had the privilege to meet and speak with many of our dedicated health care workers across Ontario. I’ve seen many examples of world-class care delivered by our exceptional health care providers.

But I have also seen that our health care system and our health care workers are under incredible pressure. And for too many people, health care is too hard to access. The status quo is not working. Ontarians deserve to be able to get care where and when they need it. This means more hospital and long-term-care beds in their communities. It means more diagnostic testing like MRIs and CT scans closer to home. And it means more skilled health care workers available to provide care.

We need to be bold, innovative and creative. We need to build on the spirit of collaboration on display across the health care sector. We need to have the courage to look to other provinces and countries, and borrow the best of what the world is already doing.

Again, we need to be clear: Insured Ontarians will always access the insured health care they need with their OHIP card, never their credit card. That is why our government announced the Your Health plan and the proposed legislation that would, if passed, support its implementation.

Through the Your Health plan, our government is continuing to prioritize making it easier for individuals and families to connect to the care they need, whether that’s by expanding access to services in our homes or community, giving people the choice to book more appointments online or take an appointment virtually, or ensuring a hospital bed is there when it’s needed. We are expanding access to services in health care settings that are close to home, such as pharmacies, or by expanding the number of community surgical and diagnostic centres.

We will cut the wait times for key services like MRI and CT scans and cataract surgeries, as well as for other services such as emergency care and supports for mental health and addictions.

Our government is also moving forward with medical school expansion plans and training more nurses, adding training positions for physician assistants, allowing Canadian health care workers to come work in Ontario quicker, and adding more education spots for nurse practitioners. And our health care workers will be set up to work together as a team, making it easier for Ontarians to navigate care at every stage of their life.

Some of these changes will happen immediately as we take action to address pressing issues. Other changes will take time and will be phased in over the months and years ahead as we educate and graduate new health care workers and build new hospitals, community surgical and diagnostic centres, and long-term-care homes, while delivering care in new and innovative ways.

Over time, Ontarians will see and feel real improvements in the care they receive as we build a better health care system for the future. People will have more information and better tools to make the right decisions about their health, and it will become faster and easier for Ontarians to connect to the health services they need in their community or at home, no matter where they live.

I will now share my time with my outstanding parliamentary assistants—the member for Eglinton–Lawrence, followed by the member from Newmarket–Aurora—who will speak further to our government’s ongoing work to strengthen our health care system and provide Ontarians with more connected and convenient care.

The Acting Speaker (Ms. Patrice Barnes): The member from Eglinton–Lawrence.

Mrs. Robin Martin: I would like to start by thanking the Deputy Premier and Minister of Health for her strong commitment to patient-centred care and her leadership in building a strong public health system that better addresses patient needs. I’m pleased to rise today in the House to speak to the Your Health Act on behalf of my constituents in the riding of Eglinton–Lawrence and as parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Health. This proposed legislation is another important step forward, ensuring that our health care workers can provide high-quality, connected and convenient care, now and in the future.

I would like to express my deepest appreciation for our world-class health care workers for their unwavering commitment and tremendous contributions to our province.

The Your Health plan, which is supported by this bill, builds on the significant progress our government has made over the last several years. Since 2018, we’ve increased health care funding in our province by $14 billion. We’ve expanded Ontario’s health workforce with more doctors, nurses and personal support workers. In fact, since 2018, we’ve grown our health care workforce by 60,000 new nurses and 8,000 new physicians. We’ve added more than 3,500 hospital beds across the province, including acute, post-acute and critical care beds. We’re building new hospitals in every region of the province, getting shovels in the ground for 50 new major hospital development projects.

And since 2021, we’ve provided funding to support the operation of 49 new MRI machines. I recently had an opportunity to visit a couple of the sites which are getting their first MRI machine in some of the smaller rural areas, and it’s very exciting for those hospitals and for patients in those areas because they won’t have to travel as far to be able to get an MRI.

We’re also adding nearly 60,000 new and upgraded long-term-care beds and investing nearly $5 billion over four years to hire more than 27,000 long-term-care staff, including nurses and personal support workers, and increasing the amount of direct care that residents receive in long-term care. We continue to make it easier and faster for individuals of all ages to connect to mental health and addiction supports by building on our Roadmap to Wellness. We’ve made it more convenient to book or take a health care appointment by launching virtual care options and adding more online appointment booking tools.

Our government is better connecting health care organizations and providers in our communities through our Ontario health teams. Ontario health teams bring together providers from across health and community sectors, including primary care, hospitals, community care, mental health and addiction services and long-term care, for example, who work as one collaborative team to better coordinate and share resources. Working together, they will ensure that people can move between providers more easily, directly connecting them to different types of care and providing 24/7 help in navigating our health care system.

Speaker, Ontario is making historic investments of more than $75 billion annually in health and long-term care. But it’s clear to all of us, and I think to all Ontarians, that money alone is not enough. We need to innovate and continue to build on our successes to create tangible, lasting improvements to our health care system and to the health care that is delivered to Ontarians. They deserve no less.

The Your Health plan is a decisive strategy to ensure Ontarians receive more convenient and connected care. The three pillars of the plan provide a solid foundation to continue modernizing and improving patient care in our province.

I’d like to speak to one of these pillars: the right care in the right place. Having the right care in the right place means supporting more care in people’s own homes and communities, leveraging virtual care, supporting targeted care needs with specialized supports, building on mental health and addictions supports and services, and creating stronger long-term care. It also means reducing pressures in our emergency departments.

When people have health care available in their communities and in ways that are convenient for them, they’re much more likely to seek and receive the treatment that they need when they need it, and to stay healthier. Delivering convenient care to people in their communities will help keep our province healthier by diagnosing illnesses earlier, starting treatment as soon as possible and keeping emergency room wait times down when people need urgent care.

One of the key parts of ensuring the right care in the right place is expanding care at our local pharmacies. Pharmacists in Ontario are highly trained, highly trusted and regulated professionals. They are often the closest, most convenient option for health care in communities across Ontario. Throughout the last few years, pharmacists have really played a critical role in supporting patients across the province by supporting COVID-19 testing and vaccination efforts and educating patients about medication and treatment options.

Pharmacists continue to offer families the kind of convenient care close to home that we know Ontarians are looking for. We are expanding the role of pharmacists by increasing their scope of practice so that families will be able to connect to care closer to home at their local pharmacies, such as enabling them to prescribe medications for 13 common ailments. These initiatives are part of our ongoing work with front-line pharmacists, nurses and other regulated health workers to expand their scope of practice in ways that make it more convenient and faster for people to get care in their community.

Another significant way we are working to provide the right care in the right place is expanding the delivery of home and community care services to help more people connect to the care they need in the comfort of their own home. From more nursing and personal support services, caregiver supports and respite services, bereavement and behavioural programs to assisted living services, adult day programs and programs for people with brain injuries, work is under way to provide faster and more convenient access to the care that people need.

The province is also working with our Ontario health teams and home and community care providers to create new and innovative programs for people wanting to connect to care at home, to help ensure people receive these important services sooner. We’re making it faster and easier for young people to connect to mental health and substance use support, primary care, social services and more by adding eight new youth wellness hubs to the 14 that are already operating in communities across the province.

We’re also expanding One Stop Talk, a virtual walk-in counselling service for children, youth and families that provides access to mental health care with a clinician by phone, video, text or chat.

Through our new Health811 service, Ontarians can chat online or call 811 to talk to a registered nurse, day or night, for free and in multiple languages. Health811 can also help people find services like community health centres, mental health support or a walk-in clinic close to where they live. Future improvements planned for Health811 will allow people to create a confidential profile,

schedule video visits with clinical advisers and manage their health more easily through accessing their own personal health records and tailored information about the services and programs available through Ontario health teams, including mental health and addictions supports. We’re expanding and making investments in Ontario health teams to further support connected care, including virtual and digital care.

Speaker, Ontario already leads the country in how many people benefit from a long-term, stable relationship with a family doctor or primary care provider. But we’re doing more by expanding access to team-based models of primary care, with up to 1,200 more physicians being added to family health organizations to provide comprehensive primary care services. When family physicians work in a team model alongside other family physicians, nurses, dietitians, social workers, pharmacists and other health care professionals to deliver programs and services, you get better continuity of care and more access to after-hours care.

We’re increasing the number of spots for physicians to join a team model of care through the expansion of existing family health organizations and allowing new ones to form. This will add up to 1,200 physicians in this model over the next two years, starting with an additional 720 spots for physicians interested in joining a family health organization model in 2022-23 and 480 spots in 2023-24. These family health organizations will be required to provide comprehensive primary care services, extend evening and weekend hours of practice, and provide more weekend coverage so you can access a family physician when you need it.

Team models of primary care have demonstrated how bringing health care providers together into one team can improve the patient experience and how you access care. We’re building on this through our Ontario health teams. Teams of primary care providers regardless of model will be central to all Ontario health teams across the province.

Dr. Mekalai Kumanan, president of the Ontario College of Family Physicians, said, “We are pleased to see the Ontario government recognize the important role of family doctors and primary care in our health system. The actions taken in this plan will improve local primary care planning, access to team-based care, and will support the training and development of more family physicians in Ontario. These are aligned with the recommendations from our plan of action, Solutions for Today: Ensuring Every Ontarian Has Access to a Family Doctor.

Today’s announcement is a step in the right direction, and we look forward to working closely with the government to ensure all Ontarians have timely access to a family doctor.”

These are some of the important innovations that our government is putting in place, expanding what is possible for health care in Ontario and delivering a new level of care and convenience to families across Ontario.

I will now take the opportunity to turn things over to the member from Newmarket–Aurora, parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Health, to tell us how patients in Ontario are being provided with a better health care experience, which is supported by our proposed legislation.

The Acting Speaker (Ms. Patrice Barnes): The member for Newmarket–Aurora.

M me Dawn Gallagher Murphy: Thank you to the Minister of Health for introducing this legislation and for providing more details about how we are moving in the right direction to improve patient care in our province.

I appreciate the opportunity to speak further about this critical priority for our government. This is the first time I’m rising in this House as parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Health to speak to legislation that will improve the quality of care for patients across this province. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank my constituents, the people of Newmarket–Aurora, for this incredible opportunity.

The proposed Your Health Act, 2023, is an important piece of legislation to support better patient care. It will enable elements of the Your Health plan, which provides a very strong and comprehensive blueprint for improving our health care system.

The member from Eglinton–Lawrence and parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Health spoke about one of the plan’s three pillars: the right care in the right place. Another one of the key pillars is faster access to care. We know that the sooner people have access to care they need, the better the outcomes.

Reducing wait times for surgeries and procedures is one of the focal points of our efforts to ensure Ontarians have faster access to care. We know that lengthy wait times for surgeries are one of the biggest challenges in our province. While Ontario leads the country in the number of people who receive the surgery they need for hip and knee replacements, we still aren’t meeting the right benchmarks. So we are doing more to make it easier and faster for Ontarians to get the publicly funded surgeries and procedures that they need. By further leveraging the support of community surgical and diagnostic centres, we will eliminate surgical backlogs and reduce wait times.

As a first step, we are tackling the existing backlog for cataract surgery, which has one of the longest waits for procedures in the province. Four existing community centres located in Windsor, Kitchener-Waterloo and Ottawa have been identified as successful applicants to a recent call for applications. These centres will be able to support an additional 14,000 publicly funded cataract surgeries every year. These additional volumes make up to 25% of the province’s current cataract wait-list, which will help significantly reduce the number of people waiting outside appropriate wait times for this surgery.

We are also investing more than $18 million to existing centres to cover care for thousands of patients, including more than 49,000 MRIs and CTs, 4,800 cataract surgeries, 900 other ophthalmic surgeries, 1,000 minimally invasive gynecological surgeries and 2,845 plastic surgeries. I would like to emphasize that this is all publicly funded. The cost of receiving these insured services in community surgical and diagnostic centres is covered by an Ontario health card, never your credit card.

The status quo is not working. We need to be bold, innovative and creative. We need to build on the spirit of collaboration on display across the health care sector. We need to have the courage to look to other provinces and countries and borrow the best of what the world is already doing.

We will do this by increasing access to services in health care settings near you, like in pharmacies, by increasing the number of assessments and treatments that can be provided by your local pharmacist without a doctor’s appointment, by expanding the number of community surgical and diagnostic centres, by cutting wait times for services like MRI and CT scans and cataract surgeries and by expanding access to home and community care services so you can stay safely at home.

We know the only thing better than having care close to home is having care right in your home. We have heard loud and clear that you and your family want better and faster access to home care services. Last year, we dedicated over $1 billion to expand access to home care services over the next three years. This funding will benefit nearly 700,000 families who rely on home care annually by expanding home care services while recruiting and training more home care workers. It will help prevent unnecessary hospital and long-term-care admissions and shorten hospital stays. Most importantly, it will provide you and your family with the choice to stay in your home longer.

We’re also working with Ontario health teams and home and community care providers to establish new home and community care programs. Your home care plan should and will start as soon as you step foot in the hospital or other health care settings. Connecting home and community care through these teams will expand the reach of health care professionals all the way to your front door, and will ensure you start to receive these important services sooner.

These investments and initiatives are only part of the solution. We know we need to do more to expand and improve home care services across the province, particularly in rural and remote areas. We will continue to make investments to ensure you and your family are able to connect to home care more quickly and easily when you need support.

To quote Cynthia Martineau, the CEO of Home and Community Care Support Services, “Home and community care is an integral part of our health care system. We look forward to working with our government and community partners to ensure programs and services are in place to help people be healthier at home through connected, accessible patient-centred care.”

Sue VanderBent, the CEO of Home Care Ontario, said “Home Care Ontario applauds the government for recognizing the critical role home care plays in Ontario’s health system. Today’s plan says it best—’The only thing better than having care close to home, is having care in your home.’ Now is the time to put those words into action. The government can capitalize on its historic investment by fast-tracking funding to home care in order to stabilize and grow the sector.”

Faster access to emergency care is another key priority. We continue to find innovative ways to reduce wait times and make it faster and easier for Ontarians to access timely care. Part of this solution is to divert individuals from emergency rooms when it’s safe to do so and provide them care and treatment in the community. In more than 40 communities across the province, we have approved 911 patient care models for mental health and addictions and palliative care patients. That provides paramedics more flexibility to treat certain patients who call 911 at home or on scene in the community, rather than in the emergency rooms.

And we are having success. Patients diverted from emergency rooms through one model received the care they needed up to 17 times faster, with 94% of patients avoiding the emergency room in the days following treatment. Based on the proven success of the program, we’re now working with key partners to expand these models to different patient groups, such as people with diabetes and epilepsy. These initiatives are helping to divert patients from emergency rooms and reducing repeat hospital visits, which helps reduce patient wait times and ensures these hospital beds are available for those that need them most.

We are also helping to reduce ambulance off-load times at hospitals through investments to support dedicated off-load nurses and other health care workers to allow paramedics to drop off patients more quickly and be available to get their next call faster; building new hospitals and adding more beds; relieving pediatric pressures on hospitals; improving and expanding long-term care; supporting end-of-life care; and expanding access to mental health and addictions services in our communities. These are further priorities under the Your Health plan which will ensure Ontarians have faster access to the care they need.

Speaker, the proposed legislation also supports another key pillar of our plan for connected and convenient care: hiring more health care workers. Ontario has one of the most dedicated and highly trained health workforces in the world. Day in and day out, well-trained and well-supported doctors, nurses, personal support workers and more keep Ontarians safe and healthy. And hiring more health care professionals is the most effective step to ensure individuals and families are able to see a health care provider where and when they need to.

One way we are supporting this is by expanding the Ontario Learn and Stay Grant. We know that there are unique health care challenges in small, rural and remote communities and that recruiting and retaining health care workers in these regions requires a dedicated approach. Last spring, we launched the Ontario Learn and Stay Grant to help these communities build their own health workforces.

This program covers the costs of tuition, books and other direct educational costs for post-secondary students who enrol in high-priority programs in more than a dozen growing and underserved communities and commit to work in those communities when they graduate. Speaker, I have to say that this program has been so popular at the ROMA conference and, in speaking with many of our rural towns and municipalities, how happy they were with this program. I believe that speaks loud and clear about the impact of this type of program.

This year we are expanding the program, beginning in spring 2023, targeting approximately 2,500 eligible post-secondary students who enrol in high-priority programs, such as select nursing, paramedic, and medical laboratory technology or medical laboratory science.

We’re also taking steps to help those who want to work in Ontario. There are many health care workers from across the country and from across the world who want to work right here in Ontario, and we are making innovative changes to make it easier and faster for them to begin working and providing care to people in Ontario. With proposed new as-of-right rules, Ontario will become the first province in Canada to allow health care workers registered in other provinces and territories to immediately start providing care without having to first register with one of Ontario’s health regulatory colleges.

This change will help health care workers overcome excessive red tape that makes it difficult for them to practise in Ontario.

We will also help hospitals and other health organizations temporarily increase staffing when they need to fill vacancies or manage periods of high patient volume, such as during a flu surge. This will allow nurses, paramedics, respiratory therapists and other health care professionals to work outside of their regular responsibilities or settings, as long as they have the knowledge, skill and judgement to do so.

We are continuing to make it easier for internationally trained health care professionals to use their expertise here in Ontario, and we are working closely with regulatory colleges to make it easier and faster for qualified health care professionals to work here as well, without facing unnecessary barriers and costs, including requiring colleges to comply with time limits to make registration decisions. Our many initiatives to recruit, retain and optimize health care workers will ensure we have the right number, type and distribution of health care professionals in our province to meet the health care needs of Ontarians.

To ensure that we are building a system that works for Ontarians, the province will continuously measure our progress, including tracking the ability of people to access services like primary care and mental health care.

Something I wanted to add here is that recently in my own community of Newmarket–Aurora, Southlake Regional Health Centre just opened 12 additional mental health beds. That is due to a $6.5-million investment our government made to Southlake, approximately less than two years ago, and they just opened two weeks ago. The space is just phenomenal. This is what we’re doing to help people with mental health and addictions challenges in my community, and we’re doing that across the province.

We’re also tracking the ability of people to access and their wait times for MRIs and CT scans, and the time spent waiting in the emergency room. We will also track how we are expanding our health care workforce, to ensure it grows as our population in Ontario grows and ages. I know in my community alone, we have a very high aging population. We have over 300,000 people coming into this province each year. This is why we need to ensure our health care workforce can grow. The way our population is growing is critical.

Speaker, as we continue to roll out the Your Health plan, which is supported by the proposed legislation introduced today, we remain focused on one fundamental goal: to provide Ontarians with more connected and convenient access to health care, when and where they need it.

On February 2, the ministry released Your Health: A Plan for Connected and Convenient Care. The plan outlines an approach to making health care more accessible across all of our care options: home or community, primary care, virtual or hospital care. The plan includes actions under the three pillars: the right care in the right place, faster access to care and hiring more health care workers. The result will be a health care system that is easier to navigate, where people have more timely access to all forms of care.

Yesterday, Minister Jones introduced the Your Health Act, 2023. It covers four topics: modernizing the community surgical system, interjurisdictional registration of health professionals, patient assessments by pharmacists and data integration.

The first part of this legislation is modernizing the community surgical system. As part of the Your Health Act, the government is leveraging community surgical and diagnostic centres to reduce wait times while ensuring that patients can use their OHIP card to access insured services.

This modernized legislative framework for community surgical and diagnostic centres would ensure connected and convenient patient care through better integration of these centres in the broader health system by repealing the Independent Health Facilities Act, 1990, and replacing it with the Integrated Community Health Services Centres Act, 2023.

As the province moves to expand the types of surgeries and procedures being done in the community, it will ensure the new community surgical and diagnostic centres have in place the highest quality standards with strong oversight. The newly proposed Integrated Community Health Services Centres Act, if passed, will:

—protect patient safety through strengthened quality assurance and oversight of community surgical and diagnostic centres;

—ensure that no centre can refuse an insured service to a patient who chooses not to purchase uninsured upgrades, and no patient can pay to receive insured services faster than anyone else;

—ensure that patients who are not able to have their complaints addressed at a centre can seek help from the Ontario Patient Ombudsman; and

—protect the stability of health human resources in public hospitals, as centres will work with health system partners to promote optimal patient care pathways.

The second part of the legislation: interjurisdictional registration of health professionals. These changes would enable, as I noted earlier, as-of-right rules, allowing physicians, nurses, medical laboratory technologists and respiratory therapists in other Canadian jurisdictions to begin practising in Ontario hospitals, long-term-care homes and potentially other settings without delay.

Through amendments to a number of acts, the government is making it easier for health care professionals with the necessary knowledge, skills and judgment to start working in Ontario as soon as possible. Health care professionals would even be able to immediately begin practising while they wait for their registration with their respective Ontario health regulatory college to be completed. And with fewer administrative barriers, more health professionals will be able to come to Ontario more quickly and efficiently to work.

The third part of the bill deals with patient assessments by pharmacists. To support pharmacists’ expanded roles in the health system, the government is proposing to allow pharmacists the ability to independently initiate prescriptions based on their own assessment of a patient’s health when providing medication therapies.

The fourth part of the bill deals with data integration. The amendment creates an exciting opportunity to strengthen protections for personal health information and link data for research purposes, to help make better programs and services for all Ontarians. Health, education and social services data, for example, can be linked to create insights that wouldn’t otherwise be unearthed. We’re pleased that the first external body to be given this new status is the internationally renowned, Ontario-based Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences. This is a trusted organization that has produced stellar research for decades.

Importantly, the data that will be linked is aggregate and de-identified, meaning it’s not personal information. Moreover, the Information and Privacy Commissioner oversees the whole process to ensure that personal information is protected. This is an important step in improving our health care system.

We hope we can count on the support of all members of this great House to support this act.

The Acting Speaker (Ms. Patrice Barnes): Question?

M me France Gélinas: I would like to know—in your bill, you are setting up for basically private, for-profit, investor-owned corporations to start providing care. The care will continue to be paid by the government, but it will be offered by private, for-profit, investor-owned corporations. Where in your bill is the accountability? Where can we make sure that there are standards in place so that patients do not get over-billed or sold add-ons? What kind of inspection and oversight is present in your bill?

Mrs. Robin Martin: Thank you very much for the question. Obviously, a lot of this is still going to be spelled out in regulations, but the oversight is determined—we’re going to make sure that we have oversight. We have the Patient Ombudsman, of course, if people have a concern.

There’s also, of course, the Commitment to the Future of Medicare Act. We want to make sure that people are able, if there is some concern, to raise that concern to an appropriate person who will deal with it. In the legislation, each of the entities would have to have their own complaint mechanism.

All of this will be under the auspices of Ontario Health because it will be integrated into our health care system. That is the whole point of that part of the legislation: to integrate these community clinics into our broader health care system.

The Acting Speaker (Ms. Patrice Barnes): Question?

Ms. Andrea Khanjin: I want to thank both parliamentary assistants for their great remarks. They really understand, talking to all Ontarians, how important strengthening our health care system is.

In fact, I know that not too long ago I was able to announce with Minister Downey an MRI and CT scanner at Royal Victoria hospital, and PA Martin was there at GBGH to announce some great funding for them. That is a growing area, and critical infrastructure is needed at the hospital. I was wondering if PA Martin could elaborate a little bit more on that great announcement that she did at GBGH.

Mrs. Robin Martin: Thank you so much to the member from Barrie–Innisfil for raising that announcement. It was actually the day of the whiteout on the 400. We did the announcement and then I drove back at three kilometres an hour through a blinding snowstorm and somehow survived, so that was good.

The important part of the announcement was that Georgian Bay General Hospital has never had an MRI there. We were able to provide the funding to continue operations and hire staff, etc., to have an MRI right there on the premises of the hospital. This is among 49 MRIs we’re putting in community hospitals. I know the other parliamentary assistant, PA Gallagher Murphy, has done some announcements as well in various venues.

I also went to the riding of Hastings–Lennox and Addington and announced an MRI in that hospital, which had never had one. This will make a huge difference for convenience for people to get services closer to home, and that’s part of the plan.

The Acting Speaker (Ms. Patrice Barnes): Question?

Mr. Terence Kernaghan: Thank you for the presentation.

The Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs just finished travelling the province for pre-budget consultations. We heard from many delegations who are deeply concerned about the impacts of Bill 124 and the health care human resources crisis that has been created by such. Not once did the committee hear any support for Bill 124. Not one delegation supported this demeaning, degrading and, as one delegation called it, humiliating piece of legislation. We heard about the nurses who left and the health care human resources crisis that needs to be addressed. There’s an opportunity here for this government to undo the damage through Bill 60 that they have created with Bill 124.

My question is: Why is this government more concerned about health care profiteers, instead of people who need care from highly skilled nurses?

Mrs. Robin Martin: Thank you very much to the member opposite for the question. Frankly, what we’re concerned about is making sure that people get health care quickly, conveniently, in their communities. That’s what this legislation is all about. In the last election, I believe Bill 124 was an issue of discussion. We did have an election result which re-elected this government with an even greater majority. I think the people have spoken.

If you talk to them, the people who receive services want our health care system to be better, and that’s what this government is focused on doing. That’s what this Minister of Health is focused on doing: making a better, more convenient health care system to provide services to all Ontarians and good results for all Ontarians so we have better health care.

The Acting Speaker (Ms. Patrice Barnes): Question?

Mr. Dave Smith: One of the things I’ve heard repeatedly from the opposition is that this is going to cost people out of pocket, that somehow OHIP isn’t going to cover all these things and that people are going to have to pull their credit card out all the time. Is there anything in this legislation that protects Ontarians from any extra billing?

Mrs. Robin Martin: Thank you very much for the question. Of course, Ontarians are protected from extra billing through the Commitment to the Future of Medicare Act. In this legislation as well, we want to ensure that people pay only with their OHIP card for OHIP-insured services, as they have always done.

I understand that people like to use words in debate. They like to use the words “private” and “public,” but I think those words confuse people, because most people don’t have the same meaning in mind.

I heard Dr. Jane Philpott say this on TVO’s The Agenda when she mentioned these. They were having a debate about this whole issue, about public versus private health care. People don’t care about that issue. What they care about is whether they’re paying with their OHIP card, and that is the most important thing. You will continue to pay for health services with your OHIP card.

The Acting Speaker (Ms. Patrice Barnes): Question?

Mr. Joel Harden: Speaker, I have to use these reading glasses now, but I don’t need the reading glasses to see through the nonsense being peddled over here. Let’s be clear: They said they scanned and they asked, “Who could help us? Who could help relieve the backlog of surgeries?” There was no public tendering. There was no RFP. The ministry reached out directly to Tory-friendly, private, for-profit health clinics, like the Herzig Eye Institute in Ottawa, which is going to get 5,000 surgeries and charge 33% more for them.

Who protects the taxpayer? Who protects the taxpayer from this gouging of the public purse? How could this possibly be a Conservative government when they light the public money on fire and disrespect health care workers? This bill is a disgrace.

Mrs. Robin Martin: Speaking of nonsense, I’m hearing it again from my friend opposite. I think that is complete and utter nonsense. In fact, this bill is going to provide people with better health care closer to home. We already gave a lot of money to hospitals. We gave an extra $880 million to help with our surgical recovery plan. We put 49 MRIs into all the extra hospitals, as I’ve said, and CT scanners, and paid for operations. But that isn’t enough to clear our surgical backlog.

Ontarians are tired of waiting for health care. We want them to get their health care sooner. It’s better for their health. It’s better for diagnostics. It means they have a better chance of having a great outcome, and that’s what we are—

The Acting Speaker (Ms. Patrice Barnes): Thank you. Further questions?

Mr. Lorne Coe: Speaker, good morning. You’ll know out of the great representation that you do for the riding of Ajax that we have close to a million people in the region of Durham. They rely on, in many instances, community surgical and diagnostic centres in the region of Durham. We have across that region, as you know, probably about 20 of them at the present time, including the Oshawa community clinic that’s in close proximity to my riding.

Can the member from Newmarket–Aurora speak a little bit about how this proposed legislation further leverages community surgical and diagnostic centres to help the million people in the region of Durham?

M me Dawn Gallagher Murphy: I’d like to thank the member from Whitby for the question. That is what this is about: giving people quality of life. As we spoke to in our speeches earlier, it is all about wait times. We have better outcomes for patients if they can get the MRIs and the CT scans faster. The faster they get those, the better outcomes for the people, the better quality of life that they may have. So—

The Acting Speaker (Ms. Patrice Barnes): Thank you. Further debate?

M me France Gélinas: This is a rather sad day for me, Speaker. This is a day that I knew was coming, but this is not a day that I was looking forward to.

I come from the party of Tommy Douglas, a party that believes in medicare, a party that believes that care should be based on needs, not on ability to pay. With this bill today, this is about to go out the window. This government is taking a step that we’ll never be able to backtrack on; that will destroy a program that defines us as Canadians, a program that defines us as Ontarians—that we care for one another, that you don’t have to have money to receive the care you need. This is the Canadian way. This is something that we’ve built for decades, and today, we’re taking a huge step to destroy it.

I want to talk a little bit about clarifying the public and credit cards and health cards in all of this. Right now, in Ontario, we have publicly owned facilities. Publicly owned facilities are community health centres, public health units, that kind of stuff. We have privately owned not-for-profit facilities. Those are our hospitals. Our hospitals are owned by corporations, but they are not-for-profit. There are four of them that were granted when medicare came into place, but they play a very, very small role; 152 hospitals in Ontario are not-for-profit.

Then we have physician-owned small businesses. Those are most doctors’ offices. They care for 1,000 or 2,000 patients. They pay for their rent and the cleaning and the secretary and maybe a nurse, and they are the doctor’s office. They are physician-owned small businesses. That’s not what we’re talking about in this bill.

In this bill, we are talking about private, for-profit, investor-owned corporations. Those are corporations that have nothing to do with care. They are willing to invest the millions of dollars it will take to build surgical suites, to build MRIs and everything else that the government wants to privatize, to make for-profit. They are willing to invest that money. Why? Because there is a lot of money to be made off of the backs of sick people. How do they do this?

Well, sure, the surgeons, the physicians will bill OHIP for their services, like they would in a hospital, like they would in their private clinic, but what those private, for-profit, investor-owned corporations do is that they use the power imbalance that exists between the physician, the specialist, who’s about to put a laser to your eye, who’s about to cut open your knee, your hip, your whatever—there is a real power imbalance between the person who provides the care and the person who needs the care.

What those private, for-profit, investor-owned corporations do is they use this power imbalance to ask for money, and there’s no shame in asking for a ton of money from people who are sick, from people who need care.

Unfortunately, it is already happening a little wee bit in Ontario right now—more than a little wee bit; it’s already happening in Ontario. Now, we are about to open the door to those private, for-profit, investor-owned corporations that are just biting at the bit to come into Ontario, because Ontario is a very lucrative market where it doesn’t matter if they will have to put upfront millions of dollars to set up those surgical suites. They can guarantee their investors double-digit returns for years on end. And we are not talking 11% returns here; we are talking into the 25%, 30% returns.

So if you have the money to invest in those million-dollar, private, for-profit, investor-owned corporations, they will guarantee you a huge payback. The payback will come from sick people, like you and I—I don’t wish harm upon anyone. I wish we could all be healthy all the time, but we know that this is not the reality. Some of us will get sick; some of us will need care. Then they will charge, and they will charge lots. This is where most of their profit will be made. Some will do double billing—not that many, I hope, but it will be there.

When we look at some of the myths that they are putting forward, the first one is that those new private, for-profit, investor-owned corporations will alleviate wait times in the public system. There is tons of evidence that shows that this is not the case. Australia was the last one to introduce a parallel system, in 1997, and we’ve seen what happened. Basically what happened was they made the wait times worse for most of us. A few rich people will pay for the extra and will get faster care, but most Ontarians won’t. For most of us, it will mean longer wait times.

Myth number two: Private, for-profit ownership of health care facilities leads to better health outcomes. This has been studied to death also. The body of evidence is really strong. I can name you study after study that shows that the profit model does not incentivize high-quality care. In fact, for-profit delivery has been associated with an increased mortality.

There are some who will have you believe that private, for-profit, investor-owned corporations will make health care more efficient. All of those have been studied. All of those have been looked at. None of those pull through. They are not more efficient, and the list goes on.

Today, with this bill, we are opening up the door to private, for-profit, investor-owned corporations who will deliver the care. The single payer will stay in place. The Ontario government will continue to pay for medically necessary care, for medically necessary surgery. They will continue to pay. What will change is that those corporations will find hundreds of ways to make you pay.

I have the example of Mr. Dutton, who—I need to wrap up—

The Acting Speaker (Ms. Patrice Barnes): Thank you to the member from Nickel Belt.

Second reading debate deemed adjourned.

The Acting Speaker (Ms. Patrice Barnes): It is now time for members’ statements. We’ll continue further debate in the afternoon session.

Members’ Statements

Anti-bullying initiatives

M me Dawn Gallagher Murphy: Today is Pink Shirt Day, and I’m so grateful to be speaking to this topic today with my colleagues.

In 2007, two young men in Nova Scotia stood up for a fellow classmate who was being bullied. That child’s crime? He was wearing a pink polo shirt.

Bullying has no place in our schools, in our workplaces or anywhere in our province, full stop. We must ensure that students across this province are treated with respect and dignity at all times.

Pink Shirt Day is all about being kind and lifting one another up. Moments of kindness, empathy and understanding can mean so much to children impacted by bullying. Quick fact: One in five kids are affected by bullying.

It is important that bullying behaviour is called out when you see it. It is also important to simply offer support and connect with people being bullied.

In this House, we may not agree on everything; however, I am truly impressed with so many members showing their support by wearing pink today. As we are lifting each other up, let’s encourage others to lift one another up.

Madam Speaker, thank you for this opportunity to stand in this chamber today to raise awareness against bullying.

Labour dispute

Mrs. Lisa Gretzky: I rise today in solidarity with 250 workers from the Windsor Salt mine and over 400 workers at Highbury Canco. Windsor Salt workers, members of Unifor Locals 240 and 1959, are on strike for job security and to fight the company’s move to contract out their jobs to third-party and non-unionized workers—classic union-busting.

Over 400 workers from the Highbury Canco plant in Leamington, members of UFCW Local 175, are on strike for wage improvements. Their employer is busing in replacement workers, scabs, and paying them more than the permanent workers and offering them benefits—again, union-busting.

From beverages, food products and even road salt, these dedicated workers in Windsor and Leamington work hard every day. Scab labour undermines collective bargaining, prolongs labour disputes and removes the employer’s incentive to negotiate in good faith.

New Democrats have tabled anti-scab legislation numerous times but neither the previous Liberal government or the current Conservative government has passed it. To be clear: Conservatives showing up for photo ops on picket lines isn’t solidarity; passing anti-scab legislation is.

Conservatives claim to be friends of labour, but real friends don’t allow scabs to cross picket lines. Friends don’t attack education and health care workers, like the Conservatives did with Bill 28 and Bill 124.

Speaker, 98% of collective agreements are settled without a strike. With the Conservatives consistently undermining the collective bargaining process at every opportunity and refusing to pass anti-scab legislation, strikes will continue to happen.

To Unifor Locals 1959 and 240 and UFCW Local 175: I stand with you in this fight. One day longer, one day stronger.

Congenital heart disease

Ms. Goldie Ghamari: I’m pleased to rise about a constituent of mine from Greely: Anna Bailie. Anna is a tireless advocate for Ontarians with congenital heart defects and has been working with other board members of the Canadian Congenital Heart Alliance to raise awareness through Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Week, which took place from February 7 to 14. This is a part of February itself being Heart Month.

Congenital heart defects are structural problems that are present in the heart from birth. While once considered a disease that was fatal during childhood, progress has been made over the last 50 years in diagnoses, surgery, and interventional catheter-based procedures. Because of these advancements, about 90% of children born with heart defects survive into adulthood.

For Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Week, the Canadian Congenital Heart Alliance organized several events to raise awareness, including lighting monuments across Canada red and giving proclamations in major cities.

I would like to thank Anna Bailie and the Canadian Congenital Heart Alliance for their hard work and advocacy to educate Ontarians about congenital heart defects and to continue to raise money for research to ensure that Canadians with congenital heart disease can receive the most innovative treatment.

As Ontarians, let’s support the hard work of Anna Bailie and the Canadian Congenital Heart Alliance.

Coldest Night of the Year

Ms. Jessica Bell: This Saturday, February 25, I will be participating in the Coldest Night of the Year event, joining thousands of Canadians who walk to raise awareness and funding for groups and organizations that are helping the homeless and the needy.

And the need is very great. In my riding, people are sleeping in tents, in parks. They’re living on the TTC. They’re sleeping in foyers. They’re raising their children in shelters. They’re being evicted because they cannot pay the rent. They’re dying of cold, and they’re dying of exposure.

I want to recognize the volunteers, the people and the fabulous groups in my community who are participating in the Coldest Night of the Year: Fort York Food Bank; Street Haven, Canada’s first women’s shelter; Yonge Street Mission, which helps families and youth living on the street in need; and Sistering, a welcoming drop-in shelter on Bloor. Please go to cnoy.org and find an organization to support. They need your help. They are looking forward to walking and working with you.

And I want to issue a challenge. The additional challenge is this: As we provide our charity and our support on Saturday night, I urge us to emphasize our support with a call to action to push this government for province-wide change, to call on this government to have a plan to address homelessness and poverty, to call on this government to double social assistance rates, to bring in affordable homes and to bring in strong rent control to keep people housed. I look forward to seeing you on the 25th.

Shelter services

Mr. Mike Harris: I was very excited to attend the grand opening of House of Friendship’s new shelter care facility just over a month ago. Our government provided over $10 million in funding to help purchase and operate a former hotel site and convert it into a new 100-bed emergency shelter. But it goes beyond shelter space, Speaker. It includes around-the-clock on-site staff as well as health and housing supports, which is very important. I want to quote Jessica Bondy, the director of housing services at House of Friendship: “Having those services and supports right on site for people who are struggling with homelessness goes an incredibly long way to helping them improve.”

I’ve been a big advocate for this project for the last few years since it came across my desk, and I want to thank all the volunteers; the staff—everybody that’s helped make this happen—John Neufeld, the executive director of House of Friendship; and of course, the fantastic team led by Minister Clark with municipal affairs and housing and all of the staff there that have helped see this come to fruition. It’s a very big project. I was glad to see the member for Waterloo there as well for the grand opening.

This is something the whole community can get behind, a great non-partisan project, and it was really great to be part of it.

Health care

Mr. Chris Glover: Ontarians deserve better health care. There was a recent report that showed that ERs have been closed across Ontario 158 times over the past year. It’s absolutely inexcusable, and this government’s actions have worsened that crisis. Bill 124, which illegally caps health care workers’ wages at 1% over the last four years has made them feel completely unappreciated and driven health care workers out of the system.

Now this government has introduced legislation to privatize our public health care system, to transfer our tax dollars and our health care workers from the public system into a private, for-profit system. This is only going to worsen the crisis that we are already facing in health care. Ontarians deserve health care. They deserve health care when they need it.

This government is playing an ideological game. All of the people who are waiting in emergency rooms, all of the people who are waiting for hip surgeries and knee surgeries: Know that your suffering is part of this government’s ideological goal of privatizing the system. And if you think that you’re going to be better cared for in that private, for-profit system, just look at the Armed Forces report on long-term care during the pandemic and see how poorly the private, for-profit system created by the previous Conservative government treated seniors in our province.

Heart Valve Disease Awareness Day

Mr. Rudy Cuzzetto: Today is Heart Valve Disease Awareness Day. Over a million Canadians are living with heart valve disease. Cardiologists have described this as the next epidemic of heart disease. It is easy to dismiss the symptoms as normal signs of aging, or, in my case, the effect of working 12-hour shifts at Ford Motor Co. But my wife knew it was something more.

I had a physical, including a simple stethoscope check. When the doctor listened to my heart, he heard a murmur. Fortunately, when valve disease is detected early, treatment is effective. Twelve years ago, I had an aorta valve replaced with a mechanical valve. Today, I’m living a normal, healthy life.

Some patients can have valves repaired and, increasingly, the surgery is minimally invasive. Unfortunately, based on a recent Heart Hub survey, only 3% of Canadians over 60 are aware of the most common type of heart valve disease and only 26% of Canadians had a stethoscope check within the past year.

Improving public awareness is critical, and that’s why days like today are important. Later today, I will be introducing a private member’s bill that would proclaim February 22 as Heart Valve Disease Awareness Day, and I’d like to invite all members to join us in room 247 after question period. Cardiologists from around the province are here today, and you can learn more about heart valve disease and get a free stethoscope check. It saved my life. It could save yours.

Transportation infrastructure

Mr. Stephen Blais: Everyone in Ottawa knows that there’s a need for a new interprovincial crossing in the national capital. Thousands of semi trucks travel through the heart of the downtown every day, putting pedestrians at risk and creating an environment that is not conducive to a modern capital city. And this is not a new problem.

Going as far back as the Gréber plan from the 1940s, the National Capital Commission has studied options for a new interprovincial bridge over and over again. And for decades, every study ever done has said that a new bridge on the east side of Ottawa should be built over Kettle Island, which would connect Highway 50 at Montée Paiement in Gatineau to a corridor leading to the 417 in Ottawa.

The most recent study from 2020, which builds on the previous study from 2009, concludes that the Kettle Island corridor would be the least costly of the three proposed routes, would attract the most truck traffic and public transit, offer the most manageable environmental effects and provide the biggest boost in terms of economic development. Instead of making this decision, the National Capital Commission continues to drag the process out, leaving in limbo thousands of concerned residents in Orléans and other communities in Ottawa. These ongoing processes have been time-consuming, expensive and generate enormous anxiety for residents.

It’s time for the NCC to get it done. Kettle or kill it.

Who Are the Jews? exhibit

Mrs. Robin Martin: Last Tuesday, I had the pleasure of attending the launch of La’ad Canada’s Who Are the Jews? travelling exhibit, along with city councillor James Pasternak, La’ad Canada’s director of advocacy Sam Eskenasi, and representatives of Hasbara Canada. We joined Bruno Pileggi and others at the headquarters of the Toronto Catholic District School Board in the neighbouring riding of Willowdale for the launch of this new exhibit.

The Jewish people have been around for millennia. Unfortunately, anti-Semitic incidents have also happened throughout history, and they’ve recently been on the rise again, including, sadly, here in Ontario and Toronto. In 2018, La’ad Canada commissioned a survey of Canadians to gauge their understanding of Jews and Judaism. The results unfortunately revealed that Canadians have little knowledge about the Jewish people and, more concerningly, that much of the information people thought they knew about the Jews was either false or based on anti-Semitic tropes.

When the cause of anti-Semitism is misinformation, or no information at all, the solution begins with gaining knowledge, and that is an understanding of who the Jews are. Exhibition visitors here will learn about where they come from, who they are, their connections to the land of Israel and how anti-Semitism differs from other forms of racism. Also, visitors can “ask a Jew anything” and they will answer the question. Someone is on hand to do that.

The exhibit is funded through our Anti-Racism and Anti-Hate Grant Program. It’s a perfect example of how education will fix racism and anti-Semitism. I encourage all school boards to adopt this exhibit and have it go through their schools.

Project Arrow

Mr. Lorne Coe: I’m pleased to report that Ontario Tech University in Oshawa was the build partner for Project Arrow, Canada’s pioneering full-build, zero-emission concept vehicle recently revealed at the Consumer Electronics Show by our Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade, the Honourable Vic Fedeli. Project Arrow is Canada’s business card to demonstrate that the Canadian automotive ecosystem can build EVs.

Post-secondary institutions like Ontario Tech play an important role in this ecosystem—driving research and innovation, and developing Ontario’s future automotive talent. This vehicle, Speaker, was built in partnership with the innovative automotive supply sector at Ontario Tech University, utilizing its world-class core research facilities, faculty and students. The project showcased, once again, how Ontario Tech University offers unique experiential learning opportunities for its students to make a once-in-their-lifetime contribution to Ontario/Canada’s technology future.

Congratulations to the students. Congratulations to Steven Murphy, the president of Ontario Tech University.

Wearing of shirts

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Point of order. The member for Newmarket–Aurora.

M me Dawn Gallagher Murphy: Mr. Speaker, if you seek it, you will find unanimous consent to allow members to wear pink shirts to promote the national day for anti-bullying.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): The member for Newmarket–Aurora is seeking the unanimous consent of the House to allow members to wear pink shirts to promote the national day for anti-bullying. Agreed? Agreed.

Interjection: What if someone said no? What would we do then?

Interjections.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): It all worked out.

Introduction of Visitors

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): We have with us in the public galleries high school students from across the province participating in the ninth annual Legislative Assembly of Ontario model Parliament. We want to thank all parties for their support and participation in this important project. Please join me in warmly welcoming our future parliamentarians to the Legislature today.

Mr. Mike Harris: I, too, want to welcome all the students from across Ontario here today, but I would be remiss if I didn’t give an extra-special welcome and maybe a little tad of embarrassment to the member from Kitchener-Conestoga in the gallery up here. Some of you may remember him as page Jaxon, but he’s back for a second time: Jaxon Harris.

Mr. Will Bouma: I don’t see him in the gallery right now, but I’d like to welcome Brandon Barnard, who is aging out of the Sea Cadet program in Brantford–Brant. I want to thank him for his service to the community for over 10 years, and as he looks forward to being a volunteer now in Milton with the Sea Cadet program there. Thank you, Brandon.

Hon. Graydon Smith: I want to welcome the fantastic MP for Parry Sound–Muskoka, Scott Aitchison, joining us in the gallery today.

Mr. Terence Kernaghan: It’s my honour to welcome students from my alma mater, Western University, for University Students’ Council’s Women In House initiative program, where young women shadow an MPP and participate in professional development sessions to explore the world of politics and empower them to pursue leadership.

I’d like to welcome Jessica Look, VP of external affairs; Cameron Cawston, VP of student support and programming; Keemia Abbaszadeh, VP of communications and public affairs; Melissa Kamphuis; Anaum Farishta; Anushka Goswami; Iris Jong; Jessica Kim; Jiya Sahni; Lara Suleiman; Michelle Wodchis-Johnson; Sara-Emilie Clark; Sofia Ouslis; Tamsen Long; and Abirame Pannerthasan. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

Mr. Andrew Dowie: I’ve got a couple of introductions this morning. First, I want to welcome Cole Gorham, who is with the model Parliament today up in the visitors’ gallery, from the Windsor area.

I also wanted to note how much of a privilege it is for me to introduce members of the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association here to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. They have a delegation here today, and I would like to introduce a few of their Windsor members: Greg Monforton, Jennifer Bezaire and Joanna Sweet. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

Mr. Ted Hsu: I wanted to introduce three young people: first of all, our page, Yonglin Su, from R.G. Sinclair elementary school in my riding. I want to welcome her to Queen’s Park, and I look forward to seeing her and working with her in the House over the next couple of weeks.

A couple of model parliamentarians—Ayden Layng, from Kingston; and Kidane Singer, from Belleville—are here and I want to welcome them.

Mr. Tom Rakocevic: It’s my privilege to introduce the Ontario Trial Lawyers, who are here for their reception happening from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. on the second floor. We’re joined by president Maria Damiano, president-elect Laurie Tucker, vice-president Sandev Purewal and CEO John Karapita, as well as Joanna Sweet, Karen Hulan, Gerry Antman and Sean Hayward. Welcome to Queen’s Park. And welcome to all those participating in the model Parliament today.

Ms. Goldie Ghamari: I would like to welcome, from the model Parliament, two students from the fantastic riding of Carleton: Sharaphaajan Sivapalan and Manahil Bhojani. I know they’re somewhere in the gallery. I look forward to meeting them later today. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

M me Lucille Collard: I’d like to welcome people from the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association, who are meeting later today, and especially a member from Ottawa, Laurie Tucker; as well as Western University Students’ Council members Opeyemi Dinah and Basta Mustafa, who are here and are going to be shadowing me today. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

Ms. Bhutila Karpoche: I’d like to welcome Alexander Primrose from Parkdale–High Park, who is here to participate in the Ontario model Parliament program; and also two students from the Women In House initiative who are shadowing me today, Joy Chen and Sthuthi Satish.

Mr. Rudy Cuzzetto: Today I would like to welcome Heart Valve Voice Canada and the Canadian Cardiovascular Society. As well, I would like to welcome, from the Trial Lawyers Association, Sonia Nijjar.

Mr. Joel Harden: I want to join colleagues who have welcomed the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association, especially Laurie Tucker from Ottawa. It’s nice to see you here.

Ms. Andrea Khanjin: I would like to introduce students from the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy: Kate Todd, Napas Thein, Armaan Sahgal, Anton Babak and Dasha Bielik. I would also like to introduce two ladies from Western University who I get the honour of having for the Women In House day: Abi Pannerthasan and Jessica Kim.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): If there are no objections, we’ll continue with introduction of visitors.

Mr. Terence Kernaghan: It’s a privilege to welcome members of the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. OTLA has a delegation here today and I’d like to introduce a few of the members from London, including Alfonso Campos Reales, Mary-Anne Strong and Karen Hulan. Also from London is Barb MacFarlane. Barb will be OTLA’s president from 2025 to 2026. They’re having their reception from 5 p.m. to 7p.m. in committee rooms 228 to 230. All MPPs are invited to attend. On behalf of members of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, I would like to welcome you to Queen’s Park.

Mrs. Robin Martin: I just wanted to welcome to the Legislature today Cindy Zhu from my riding of Eglinton–Lawrence, who is here for the model Parliament.

MPP Lise Vaugeois: I would like to welcome Emma Ouellette and Paula Ocampo who are here from the Western University Women In House program. It’s a pleasure to meet you and have you here.

Ms. Mary-Margaret McMahon: Good morning, Speaker, and everyone. I would like to welcome some model Parliament students from beautiful Beaches–East York. That’s Wolfgang Wai-hahn, Quinlan Chang and Romée Looman. I hope you find your time here scintillating.

Hon. Stephen Lecce: I want to introduce Aisha Mahmoud, Tiya Patel, Stephanie De Castro and Naomi Musa. All are here with the Ontario Student Trustees’ Association. We appreciate their leadership in Ontario.

Mrs. Lisa Gretzky: I would like to welcome Cole Gorham from my riding. Go, Mustangs!

Mr. Stephen Blais: I’d like to welcome model parliamentarian Esma Muhammed from Orléans, where the sun rises on the nation’s capital.

Ms. Natalie Pierre: I’d like to welcome the following students who are participating in today’s model Parliament program, from Burlington: Su Arslan, Noor Grewal, Grace Sakran and Thomas Antunes.

Miss Monique Taylor: I would also like to welcome trial lawyers who I will be meeting with this afternoon. Mike Santilli, Karen Hulan and Jeffrey Shinehoft, welcome to Queen’s Park.

Mr. Adil Shamji: I wish to welcome Heart Valve Voice Canada and the Canadian Cardiovascular Society to the Legislature for their valve disease lobby day today.

Mr. Rob Flack: Today is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day. As such, I am pleased to recognize Kelly Tallon Franklin, a human trafficking survivor, along with her team of 30 delegates in the members’ gallery and in the public gallery. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

Courage for Freedom, and their Project Maple Leaf, represents 500 allies. These community leaders are doing the heavy lifting in all sectors in society as collaborators to bring awareness to end human trafficking, with key support systems here in Ontario and across Canada. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

Ms. Jennifer K. French: I am very pleased to welcome Angela Huang and Mariana Batista, who are here with Western University Students’ Council’s Women In House. They’re in town for a conference, and they will be keeping me company all day. Thank you, ladies.

Mr. Hardeep Singh Grewal: I’d like to welcome the following students from Brampton East who are going to be participating in the model Parliament: Asrat Randhawa, Dharra Raheja and Udhay Kapila. Thank you for joining us today. I welcome you, and I hope you enjoy your stay.

Ms. Doly Begum: It is my absolute pleasure to introduce the proud family of our page captain Riya Azaredo today. We have with us Riya’s mother, Anna Esmatyar; father, Colin Azaredo; sister, Sophia Azaredo; uncle, Ajmal Esmatyar; and aunt, Fausia Esmatyar.

I also have the privilege of introducing three wonderful young women in the gallery today from the University of Western Ontario, from the Women In House program—a non-partisan program which takes young women, including women from diverse backgrounds, to have the opportunity to be involved in politics. Please welcome Chanel Parikh, Tiffany Lin and Shreya Menon to the House. Welcome to the House.

Mr. Amarjot Sandhu: I would also like to welcome the students from Brampton West participating in the model Parliament. Parneet Kaur, Noah Charles, Navya Mahajan, Kushi Iyer, Aditri Janapatla and Kevin Gill, welcome to Queen’s Park.

MPP Jill Andrew: I would like to welcome all the participants of Women In House. I’m glad to see you here. We need more of you here.

I would also like to welcome Alexander Koutakos, a participant in the Ontario model Parliament from St. Paul’s.

And I’d also like to welcome Ontario Trial Lawyers and say a special shout-out to Gerry Antman and Jeffrey Shinehoft as well, from our community of St. Paul’s. Welcome to your House.

Ms. Natalia Kusendova-Bashta: Good morning, Speaker. I’d like to welcome three Western University students, Veronika, Maria and Sarah, from the Women In House program.

I would also like to welcome Josiane, who is my new executive assistant at the Ministry of Francophone Affairs. I look forward to working with her.

I would also like to welcome, from the Ontario model Parliament, from the beautiful riding of Mississauga Centre, Rishi Jarajapu.

Mr. Tom Rakocevic: I just want to welcome, from Humber River–Black Creek, Mutahar Anwary, who is participating in the model Parliament here today. Welcome.

Mr. Nolan Quinn: I would like to welcome four students from my riding of Stormont–Dundas–South Glengarry for the model Parliament: Isabelle Gillard, Alexis Grenkie-Brooks, Leah Shirley and Jacob Pilon, who I’m also lucky enough to have work at my restaurant as well. Welcome.

Hon. Lisa M. Thompson: From the great riding of Huron–Bruce, I would like to welcome Curtis Metcalfe, who is also participating in model Parliament today.

Mr. Vijay Thanigasalam: I would like to welcome two students from my riding of Scarborough–Rouge Park who are here for the model Parliament: Tia Seepersad and Neha Devineni. Thank you and welcome to the Ontario Legislature.

Hon. Doug Downey: I want to join the chorus of those welcoming the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association. I’ve never heard such a warm welcome to a group of lawyers in my life.

I’d also like to bring greetings to Armaan Soota, who’s joining us—a York University student. Welcome.

Ms. Jess Dixon: I want to welcome my friend, and fellow persistent woman, Connie Cody, who is the federal Conservative candidate of record for Cambridge. She’s also here as part of the action against the sexual exploitation of children committee.

Finally, a very happy birthday to my fellow MPP Natalia Kusendova.

Legislative pages

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): I’m now going to ask our legislative pages to assemble for their introductions.

It is my pleasure and honour to introduce this group of legislative pages: from the riding of Scarborough Southwest, Riya Azaredo; from the riding of Waterloo, Mary Bader; from Markham–Unionville, Bianca Caracoglia; from Kitchener Centre, Georgia Fox; from Aurora–Oak Ridges–Richmond Hill, Rohan Goel; from Oxford, Harry Langford; from Humber River–Black Creek, George Li; from Don Valley North, Taylor Moore; from Thornhill, Jaden Musharbash; from Whitby, Maya O’Brien; from Windsor–Tecumseh, Adam Penner; from Etobicoke–Lakeshore, Keira Pettypiece; from Oakville North–Burlington, Vedant Ravilla; from the riding of Durham, Paige Richards; from the riding of Northumberland–Peterborough South, Wyatt Sharpe; from Kingston and the Islands, Yonglin Su; from Lambton–Kent–Middlesex, Charlotte Tamminga; from Scarborough Centre, Nolan Wu; from York–Simcoe, Liyao Yin; and finally, from Parkdale–High Park, Lindsay Matheson.

Please join me in welcoming this group of legislative pages.

Applause.

Hazel McCallion

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Point of order, the government House leader.

Hon. Paul Calandra: Mr. Speaker, if you seek it, you will find unanimous consent to allow members to make statements in remembrance of the late Mayor Hazel McCallion, fifth mayor of Mississauga, with five minutes allotted to His Majesty’s loyal opposition, five minutes allotted to the independent members as a group and five minutes allotted to His Majesty’s government.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): The government House leader is seeking the unanimous consent of the House to allow members to make statements in remembrance of the late Mayor Hazel McCallion, the fifth mayor of Mississauga, with five minutes allotted to His Majesty’s loyal opposition, five minutes allotted to the independent members as a group and five minutes allotted to His Majesty’s government. Agreed? Agreed.

I recognize the leader of His Majesty’s loyal opposition.

Ms. Marit Stiles: Good morning, Speaker. It is an honour to rise today to pay tribute to the remarkable life of Mayor Hazel McCallion. Everyone in this House knows of the no-nonsense Hurricane Hazel, who served as the mayor of Mississauga for 36 years, ushering the city into a new era. Indeed, under her tenure, Mississauga transformed into Canada’s sixth-largest city.

For 101—just short of 102—years, she lived a dynamic and colourful life. Born in Port Daniel, Quebec, Hazel McCallion moved to Montreal as a child. In the early 1940s, she played professional hockey, one of the first women ever to do so, and that spirit stayed with her. Into her eighties, she carried a hockey stick in her car trunk on the off chance she came across a game. Hazel’s passion for hockey led her to do great work with the Ontario Women’s Hockey Association, advocating to grow women’s hockey as a sport.

Hazel also supported politicians of all different stripes with her singular goal of bringing prosperity to the city she loved. She once joked that she never considered running provincially or federally, because she’d wear out the carpet crossing the floor—not a problem I have, Speaker, but it speaks to her ability to work with everyone, regardless of political stripe.

Her straightforward approach led her to being a sympathetic ear to Prime Ministers, Premiers and mayors alike, and no matter her age, Hazel burst with energy. She rarely missed a local event, and even in political retirement she was an adviser to the Ontario government, first chancellor of the Hazel McCallion Campus of Sheridan College, and oversaw the Greater Toronto Airports Authority.

While we in this House may not agree on everything, we can all agree that Hazel left behind an extraordinary legacy. She was a trailblazer, an innovator, and she inspired many women to enter politics. She was small in stature, but she was a giant.

On behalf of Ontario’s official opposition, we are profoundly grateful to her family for the sacrifices they made to share her with the people of Mississauga and with all of us. Mayor McCallion will never be forgotten.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): The member for Guelph.

Mr. Mike Schreiner: Speaker, it is an honour to rise today to pay tribute to Her Worship the late mayor of Mississauga, Hazel McCallion. The word that keeps coming to mind when people remember Hurricane Hazel is “one-of-a-kind.” It is well earned. There has never been a public figure quite like the long-serving mayor of Mississauga, and I doubt there ever will be.

She was a trailblazer, feisty and fearless, beloved by her constituents, respected and feared in equal measure by those she crossed swords with. No Premier had to bestow strong-mayor powers on Hazel McCallion; she simply assumed them through sheer force of will, and for 12 consecutive terms—36 years, into her 94th year—she used them to change the face of her city.

I last spoke with Mayor McCallion in November when our paths crossed at duelling events, and she was very clear about what she thought about my position on the greenbelt. Speaker, there is no doubt I took it squarely on the chin, but despite that, I join my fellow MPPs and countless others in Ontario and across Canada in paying tribute to a remarkable woman and the remarkable life she lived. May we all aspire to Hazel McCallion’s unparalleled commitment to public service and to her community.

She will be missed, but she will never be forgotten, the one-of-a-kind mayor of Mississauga. May she rest in peace.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): The member for Scarborough–Guildwood.

Ms. Mitzie Hunter: It is truly an honour to rise today and pay tribute to Her Worship, Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion. Hurricane Hazel served as Mississauga’s mayor from 1978 to 2014. She was one of the longest-serving mayors in Canadian history, and a symbol of strength and inspiration to a great many through her decades of service.

A business person, an athlete, a politician and a force of nature in all that she did, very few people have or will ever come close to what Hazel McCallion achieved in her lifetime, and she lived to be 101 years old, passing away just a couple of days shy of her 102nd birthday, which is February 14, Hazel McCallion Day. Her accomplishments are reflected in the honours that she received, which include the Order of Canada, the Order of Ontario, the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee and Diamond Jubilee Medals, and an honorary doctorate of law degree from the University of Toronto and Ryerson University.

Hazel’s story is closely connected to the village of Streetsville, where she put down roots and settled with her husband, Sam McCallion, in 1951 to raise their three children, Peter, Linda and Paul. This was also where her remarkable political career began to take shape.

Beginning in 1964, she served the community on the Streetsville Planning Board and was later elected as mayor of Streetsville in 1970. Hazel was a true public servant and a mayor of the people, who dedicated her life to tirelessly and selflessly serving her community and her city.

Her first act of courage, in 1979, was to evacuate safely the residents of Mississauga with the Mississauga train derailment. Over 200,000 residents were saved from this explosion.

Throughout a period that spanned 36 years, she oversaw a process of amalgamation and growth, and not only put Mississauga on the map, but transformed the place from a small city just west of Toronto to Canada’s seventh-largest city.

I want to say a few words now about the significance of what Hazel McCallion meant to generations of women, and so many are in the gallery today for this tribute. To say that she was a mentor or an exemplar would be a considerable understatement. I got to meet Hurricane Hazel very early in my career in business while at Bell Canada, and she left an impression. Hazel had a rare drive that could be seen early on in her passion for hockey, which she played from the time when she was a young girl.

This was a space where she challenged the status quo of male dominance, and for that, she will always be remembered as a trailblazer in the world of Canadian women’s hockey. Unwavering in her belief that having more women in leadership roles would make an important difference in our communities, she went on to become a force that helped propel women all across Canada into politics. She was a champion of the people, a true inspiration and a catalyst for change.

As anyone who spent any significant time around her knows, you never had to guess what Hazel was thinking. She spoke her mind. She did her homework, and it became well known that she expected everyone she worked with to do theirs. Hazel McCallion was a voice that demanded to be heard, and she made sure that she was heard. But far beyond that, she also earned the respect that won the admiration of political leaders from all levels of Canadian politics. She left an enduring mark on her community and the city of Mississauga, and she will be greatly missed by all who had the privilege of knowing her.

My deepest condolences to Hazel’s family, especially her children Peter, Linda and Paul, and her granddaughter Erika. Her legacy will remain with us and be an inspiration to all for many generations to come.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): The Premier.

Hon. Doug Ford: I rise today to pay tribute to my dear friend Hazel McCallion. My deepest condolences go to her children, Peter, Linda and Paul, and her granddaughter Erika, and everyone who had the pleasure of knowing the one and only Hazel McCallion.

I’ll tell you what Hazel meant to me. Hazel was a mentor, she was an adviser, but most importantly, she was a dear friend.

Hazel was a giant. She was a true leader, in charge of every discussion—even when we had breakfast in the morning, she would take charge—every debate in rooms she entered. There isn’t a single person who met Hazel who didn’t leave in awe of her force of personality throughout her life. Whether on the ice, in the boardroom or on the floor of the council chamber, she was a force to be reckoned with.

She always said what was on her mind, and she was always, always right, because she never lost sight of why she entered public service: to serve the people. No politician in the country understood grassroots better than Hazel did. She was in the malls, she was in the stores and she was on the streets meeting the people and listening to what they need.

She was a champion for the underdog because she believed in them, she saw their potential, and because at one time she was one herself. She grew up in a time when women, like her, were told no, but she didn’t accept that, and she proved the naysayers wrong. That’s what made Hazel such a trailblazer.

She was an icon, a legend. She was Hurricane Hazel, and today we honour her. As I said last week, we honour her 36 years as mayor of Mississauga—the longest-serving mayor in the history of Mississauga. She dedicated her life to building and serving the city she loved so much.

Mr. Speaker, I’ll tell you a story. I had her over and we went out for breakfast, and she sat down and she talked to me about how when she took the chair of mayor in 1978, the population of Mississauga was 281,000 people. Today—and it’s growing—it’s over 716,000 people, the sixth-largest city in the country. That’s a growth of 435,000 people. Just think of that: 435,000 people. She told me in the conversation—as the leader of the Green Party said—about the greenbelt and developing and so on and so forth.

She told me that there were cow pastures all throughout Mississauga, and now there are hospitals; there are homes; there are community centres; there are long-term-care centres; there are roads; there are transit systems. She said, “Doug, don’t listen to the naysayers. Don’t listen to no. We have a growing population. Move forward and be the visionary that this province needs to fulfill the needs of the 300,000 people coming to this province.” I think she said that publicly, as well, numerous times.

So I’m going to listen to Hazel McCallion, one of the true leaders in this country. We’re going to make sure that the 300,000 people who come here will have a place to call home; a place that they can put the key in the door, walk through the door, have a family, start a business.

Mississauga, because of her being a visionary, is a better city. Ontario is a better province and Canada is a better country because of the vision that Hazel McCallion had.

I’m so lucky to consider Hazel my dear friend. She was a gift. She was a mentor. May God bless Hazel McCallion.

Applause.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): We give thanks for the life and public service of Hazel McCallion.

Question Period

Health care

Ms. Marit Stiles: My question is to the Premier.

There’s no question that Ontario’s health care system is in crisis, but make no mistake, this crisis is by design. This government has underfunded our hospitals, held down the wages of our health care workers, and now, after years and years of neglect, the government has tabled a new bill that uses this crisis as an excuse to expand for-profit health care in Ontario.

Hospitals and long-term-care homes are already desperately fighting to retain nurses and doctors in what is really a staffing crisis across the system, and they’re now going to face competition from new two-tier investor-driven clinics. Nothing in this bill prevents that from happening.

Can the Premier guarantee today that these for-profit clinics will not poach staff from our publicly funded hospitals and long-term-care homes?

Hon. Doug Ford: Thank you for the question from the Leader of the Opposition.

I’ll tell you, when we took office in 2018, the health care system was an absolute disaster. There was hallway health care. It was just a total, total mess. Since 2018, we’ve hired 60,000—I repeat, 60,000—new nurses, 8,000 new doctors. We’ve put a medical school together that’s going to graduate more doctors. Just last year alone, Mr. Speaker, we hired over 12,000 nurses that came on board. We’ve spent $14 billion more—a record in Canada when it came to health care. We’re building 50 new sites across every single region, community and city, spending over $40 billion making sure they have the infrastructure they need.

I’ll finish on question number 2, there. Thank you.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): The supplementary question.

Ms. Marit Stiles: I guess that’s a no, Speaker; that’s a no. Because no matter what this government says anyway, they can’t guarantee that. They can’t guarantee that, because they’re too busy fighting in court to keep those workers’ wages down in the public system. Meanwhile, we have operating rooms collecting dust in our hospitals and shifts that are unfilled.

I want to go back to the Premier again: This bill also includes no actual oversight mechanism to ensure patient safety. The Minister of Health yesterday couldn’t even say which body would be overseeing these clinics to ensure that procedures are done safely—couldn’t even say that.

What concrete guarantees can the Premier make today regarding people’s safety in these for-profit clinics?

Hon. Doug Ford: As we’re building the health care system, the opposition is blocking it every step of the way. They have no solution, Mr. Speaker, for the 203,000 backlog surgeries. We have a solution: working collaboratively with the Ontario Hospital Association, working collaboratively with the Ontario Medical Association, working collaboratively with the CEOs of hospitals to make sure we take the burden off the hospitals when it comes to hip replacement and knee replacement or cataracts that are happening right now. We are going to expand it.

Just think: You have an elderly mother or an elderly father that’s been in pain for a year because they can’t get a hip replacement. They’re going to be able to get that hip replacement and change their lives every single day.

When it comes to the nurses, there’s 30,000 nurses studying in colleges and universities that are going to join the Ontario health care team.

We will continue building health care to make sure we have the best health care system in the entire world, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): The final supplementary.

Ms. Marit Stiles: I’ll tell you, Speaker, this government took us from hallway medicine to no medicine. Operating rooms are empty and ERs are closed because of this staffing crisis.

And the fact is, Speaker, the government is asking Ontarians to just trust them. But the minister said yesterday that they wouldn’t be able to share some details because of the—and I want to quote her—“business-model nature” of these new clinics. The minister says there are guardrails, but beyond saying people can complain to the Ombudsman, the bill doesn’t guarantee oversight for public funds or public safety.

So again: How will this government ensure that the interest of patients takes precedence over people who just want to make a buck?

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): The Deputy Premier and Minister of Health to reply.

Hon. Sylvia Jones: The member opposite will continue to protect a small group of individuals who don’t want to change, who don’t want to see change. What we are protecting, what we are advocating for, are patients—patients who are waiting far too long for cataract surgeries, for knee surgeries, for hip replacement. We want those individuals to be able to be back with their families, back in their communities, back in their jobs. We’re doing that by making the investments that we have with your health care Ontario act.

I am very, very proud of the work that our stakeholders have done—clinicians, hospital leaders, individuals who are working in the system, who understand that innovation is not a bad word.

We’re making those investments. We’ve ensured, through our investments, like the medical school in the city of Brampton, that we’ll have new graduates and new students starting next September who will be able to have those opportunities here in Ontario in our publicly funded system.

Government accountability

Ms. Marit Stiles: This government has shown, over and over again, that their interest is in a few people getting very rich, not in Ontarians and their suffering. There is a cloud hanging over this government.

I want to go back to the Premier: Yesterday, the Premier dodged questions about the curious nature of his cozy relationships with developers. We know that developers just happened to receive some oddly specific ministerial zoning orders and access to protected greenbelt land just months after attending a fundraiser for the Premier’s family.

In the interest of transparency, I’m going to ask again: Did anyone in the Premier’s office, past or present, or any other government staff have a role in making the invitation list for his family’s fundraiser?

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): To respond, the government House leader.

Hon. Paul Calandra: I think the Premier has answered that on a number of occasions. Equally important, the integrity commissioner has also reviewed that.

What this is obviously about is the inability of the opposition to see what is happening in the province of Ontario—the progress, the prosperity that is happening across our province. We want to build new homes for people. We want the over 300,000 people who are coming to Ontario each and every year to fill the thousands of jobs that are available because of the incredible investments that have been made by this minister, by this Premier, to bring jobs back to Ontario.

And do you know what they want? They want what everybody wants—what my parents wanted, what everybody wants when they come to this country: They want to have the ability to buy their first home. They want to have a community to live in that is prosperous. They want to be able to raise a family, have good schools and safe streets. That is what we’re doing: building a stronger, more prosperous, safer Ontario. They’ll do everything in their power to avoid that happening.

Interjections.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Stop the clock. Order. While the clock is stopped, I’ll remind the members that we have the youth Parliament participants in the visitors’ gallery today. I think we want to show them our best efforts today.

Start the clock. The Leader of the Opposition.

Ms. Marit Stiles: Speaker, I really think that the people of this province deserve answers from the Premier. There is a smell around this issue and a cloud over this government. It goes without saying that when you’re the Premier of a province, you are held to a higher standard than the average father of the bride, especially when the guest list includes lobbyists and developers who have since received suspiciously favourable changes to the law.

The Premier has said that his family events have an open-door policy. Why, then, are there reports that some people felt they were being strong-armed into paying to attend? Again to the Premier: Did anyone from his office help create the invitation list for this event? Yes or no?

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Government House leader.

Hon. Paul Calandra: Well, I think that question and the way the Leader of the Opposition has been asking it over the last few days is indicative of where the NDP really is at. It’s not about the economy. It’s not about building better schools. It’s not about building long-term care. It’s not about changing health care to make it better for the people of the province of Ontario. Forget about the changes that the Minister of Energy has done to ensure that people can afford to pay their bills. Forget about safe streets. Forget about the students who are going to colleges and universities. The only thing that the NDP care about is bringing down the people of the province of Ontario.

And what are we doing? We’re building back this province, stronger than it was before. We’re cutting taxes for people. We’re building roads. We’re building highways. We’re building transit systems. We’re building 60,000 new long-term-care beds across the province of Ontario. Our Minister of Agriculture is doing everything that she can to make one of the most important industries in our province prosperous, despite punishing carbon taxes from the federal government. We’re going to continue to get the job done despite the Leader of the Opposition.

Interjection.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): The member for Ottawa Centre will come to order.

The final supplementary.

Ms. Marit Stiles: You know what this is about? This is about having a government that Ontarians can trust, a responsible government, a government that Ontarians could be proud of. That’s what this is about. These are the questions that Ontarians have, and this Premier won’t answer them.

Let’s review the timeline, shall we? The stag-and-doe was in August, the wedding in September. Just two months later, this government broke its promise to the people of Ontario and started carving up the greenbelt. Now we find out that some of the very people who attended the Premier’s family festivities suddenly had their land value skyrocket due to this government’s decisions—curious.

But the Premier—or the government House leader, even—can clear this up right now: Did the Premier share this intentions to open up the greenbelt with developer guests who contributed to this family fundraiser?

Hon. Paul Calandra: Again, the integrity commissioner has reviewed this, and I think what he has said is obviously very important, Mr. Speaker.

But look, the people of the province of Ontario made a very important decision in June. What they decided to do was reduce the opposition and elect more Progressive Conservatives to this chamber to get their priorities done. They had had enough of the negativity that was coming from the opposition. This is a party who couldn’t even muster enough energy up to have a leadership race; they had to appoint their leader. It’s a party that has been so diminished by the people of the province of Ontario that their newly elected, selected leader won’t even sit in the seat of the opposition leader, but wants to sit over. But that’s not important.

What is important is building better for the people of the province of Ontario, building more homes so that the next generation can have every bit of optimism that they can afford to have a home, that people can have jobs and opportunity, like millions of other Ontarians have had. The people of Ontario know that only this side and the members of the Conservative caucus on that side will get it—

Interjections.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Stop the clock. The House will come to order.

Start the clock. The next question.

Municipal development

Ms. Catherine Fife: My question is for the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing. Two weeks ago, Waterloo councillors voted to defer a $68-million reconstruction project that would have created 800 new homes. Why? Because they’re not getting answers from the government about how to fund the needed infrastructure to support the new housing. Council’s decision came after city staff found that Bill 23 is estimated to cost the city between $23 million and $31 million over the next few years.

They paused work on a development charges study to allow for more time to fully understand the financial implications of this bill. Meanwhile, the housing crisis continues to get worse in Waterloo and Ontario. Bill 23 is already having a cooling effect on new housing starts.

Will the minister go back to the drawing board and truly consult with municipalities to actually incentivize new housing in the province of Ontario?

Hon. Steve Clark: We’re very concerned with some of the things we’re hearing from the mayor and council in Waterloo. Obviously, we’ve had a very good dialogue recently with the big city mayors. I attended their last meeting, and I look forward to continuing the conversation around development charges as we develop the rules around those DC incentives.

We do not believe as a government that non-profits and affordable housing providers should be charged huge, unsustainable fees from municipalities. We believe the best way to incentivize those costs is to directly eliminate or reduce development charges. That’s the policy of the government. We look forward to working with our municipal partners, but we’re very concerned with some of the things that are being discussed around Waterloo regional council.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): The supplementary?

Ms. Catherine Fife: Well, this minister created the problem, so we’re also very concerned with Bill 23.

It’s not just home construction that is now being delayed; it’s actually vital infrastructure like pumping stations, roads, storm sewers, water mains. This is infrastructure that would help drive new housing projects across Waterloo and Ontario.

The government promised to make municipalities “whole” financially, but Waterloo Councillor Freeman said council “doesn’t see the tools to actually secure the development charges to pay for that growth.” Construction on this project won’t move ahead now until 2024 because of the financial uncertainty this government has caused with Bill 23.

When will the government repeal Bill 23, which is jeopardizing the progress of Waterloo and other cities across Ontario by eliminating those development fees that municipalities rely on to help pay for the necessary infrastructure? Go back to the drawing board; let’s get it right.

Hon. Steve Clark: We want municipal partners to work with us. For example, I want to applaud the city of London that just recently passed a motion approving the housing pledge that we’ve asked of all the big city mayors. I want to speak to the difference between what we’re hearing from New Democrats and the government. I want to speak specifically to the young people who are in our audience today. Unsustainable fees like we see in the GTA are adding $116,900 to the average cost of—what it means to you is it means another $800 a month on a mortgage over 20 years. What are we seeing?

We’re seeing millennials having to save 20 years to be able to put a down payment on a home. That’s unacceptable to our government. We want all three levels of government to be working together. We’ve heard from many municipalities who want to work with us.

Again, I’m very concerned with what I’m hearing from Waterloo. Folks, I want you to know something: We hear you. We want you to realize the dream of home ownership.

Interjections.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Stop the clock. I need to remind all members to please make their comments through the Chair, not directly to the public galleries.

Restart the clock. The next question.

Skilled trades

Ms. Andrea Khanjin: The skilled trades are a vital part of our province’s economy, but unfortunately, after 15 years of neglect under the previous NDP-supported Liberal government, we are experiencing critical labour shortages in this sector.

In Barrie–Innisfil, thousands of jobs are being unfilled in the trades sector. These jobs represent opportunities for people, many of them paying good paycheques, with benefits and potential pensions. These are jobs that are valued. They’re important and they’re urgently needed for our province to overcome the housing shortage we are facing and to rebuild vital infrastructure.

Can the Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development tell us what our government is doing to address the skills shortage that is currently holding back Ontario from its economic potential?

Hon. Monte McNaughton: Thank you to the member from Barrie–Innisfil, who does a great job advocating for the skilled trades in her region of the province.

From day one, our government has known the skilled trades needed more attention and investments. I’m pleased to share with all members the success of our first-ever skilled trades career fairs for students. Over the course of 10 days, more than 13,000 students in five regions had the opportunity to try the skilled trades and learn first-hand about the trades from over 90 exhibitors, including unions, employers and colleges. Later this year, we’ll be bringing these fairs back and expanding them to even more locations right across the province.

Speaker, by giving more students a chance to see for themselves how rewarding and exciting the trades are, we’re setting them up for success. As Premier Ford always says, when you have a career in the skilled trades, you have a career for life.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): The supplementary question.

Ms. Andrea Khanjin: Our government understands we’re going to need skilled trades to build up more housing. We’re going to need skilled trades to build up our transportation system. Whether it’s the subway, GO Transit or critical hospital infrastructure, all this is needed. We need to get more men and women trained in these great rewarding careers in the skilled trades. Together, we can build a better prosperous province that is operating on all cylinders. Can the minister tell the government and this House what we’re doing to make it easier to remove the barriers to entry when it comes to pursuing careers in the skilled trades?

Hon. Monte McNaughton: Thank you again to the member for this really important question. Since we first formed government, we have increased the number of immigrants we’re nominating for permanent residency by 50%. Last year, I’m pleased to share that a record 40% of those we nominated were in the skilled trades. For example, in 2018, we nominated 219 construction workers. In 2022, we nominated 835 construction workers.

Furthermore, we also passed legislation that eliminates the requirement for Canadian work experience to work in the skilled trades here in Ontario. We’re welcoming the skilled immigrants we need and breaking down the barriers that newcomers face when arriving here in Ontario.

Speaker, we need all hands on deck to build back a stronger province and a stronger country.

Health care

M me France Gélinas: Ma question est pour la ministre de la Santé.

Yesterday, the minister took a huge step towards the destruction of medicare. The Auditor General, Canadian Doctors for Medicare, the Ontario Health Coalition, Health Quality Ontario, the Canadian Medical Association and Ontarians are all saying the same thing: The minister’s bill will allow corporations to make big profits off the backs of sick people. Yet there is no oversight to protect patients in her bill. Why not?

Hon. Sylvia Jones: Yesterday, we made another investment to ensure that publicly funded health care, a system that in Ontario people believe in and want to be there appropriately in their communities, is going to be for generations to come.

Our government, as the Premier mentioned—since 2018, $14 billion of new investment in health care in Ontario. What has that investment given us? It has given us two new medical schools in the works. It has given us an opportunity to actually ensure that people who are practising medicine in other parts of Canada can do that the next day when they come to Ontario.

We have, through Your Health Act, ensured, for generations to come, that a growing population and an aging population will be protected under a publicly funded health care system.

I am incredibly proud of the work that our stakeholders, our clinicians, our hospitals, our physicians have done—and are supporting Your Health Act today.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): The supplementary question.

M me France Gélinas: Speaker, there has been years of research on private, for-profit, investor-owned corporations delivering publicly funded health care services. The results are clear: longer wait times, no incentive for quality care, it is not efficient, and it is associated with increased mortality.

Why is the minister destroying medicare?

Hon. Sylvia Jones: By boosting the number of publicly funded clinics in the community, we are actually ensuring that the patients get access to the medically necessary services that they deserve and expect in a timely way. The member opposite is willing to have people languish on wait-lists; our government is not.

We have funded three additional expansions to cataract in Windsor, in Kitchener-Waterloo, in Ottawa. We’ve done that, and those clinically funded programs are already in place and already serving more patients in the province of Ontario.

We’ll continue to make those expansions because I do not believe, at my core, that it is appropriate to have people waiting for medically necessary procedures in their community.

It is unfathomable to me that the member opposite doesn’t understand, by expanding what is already in place in the province of Ontario, with over 800 community clinics—that we do not see an opportunity here to serve the patient better.

Indigenous economic development

Mr. Trevor Jones: My question is to the Minister of Indigenous Affairs and Northern Development.

Because of the policies of the previous Liberal government, supported strongly by the NDP, jobs were driven out of our province, holding back our full economic potential. Ontario’s northern, remote and Indigenous communities experienced these losses and setbacks most severely.

That is why it’s vital that our government partner with and promote economic development in Indigenous communities to create more opportunities for businesses and jobs throughout the province. Supporting Indigenous economic development furthers reconciliation and creates opportunities to strengthen relationships with Indigenous partners.

Speaker, can the minister please inform the Legislature on how our government plans to increase economic prosperity for Indigenous communities in Ontario?

Hon. Greg Rickford: I want to thank the member opposite for the extraordinary work he does on behalf of his constituents in southwestern Ontario.

I’m so proud to serve with a Premier and a caucus that has put a particular emphasis and a top priority on economic development and prosperity for Indigenous communities across this province. Let the record reflect now-National Chief RoseAnne Archibald’s idea to develop a wealth and prosperity table with Indigenous business leaders and political leaders across the province and Regional Chief Hare’s suggestion that that manifest itself in a fund to ensure that Indigenous businesses have a place in the supply chains in every sector of economic opportunity in the province.

They’re manifesting themselves. We’re pleased to work with them as full partners, and our own ministry has come up with two exciting programs to ensure that Indigenous communities and businesses play an integral role in Ontario’s economic prosperity.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): The supplementary question.

Mr. Trevor Jones: Thank you to the minister for his response. Businesses are only part of a vibrant economy, and there are additional ways to amplify prosperity and build up all of Ontario. Indigenous communities and organizations are providing leadership in developing infrastructure and growth plans to build businesses and create employment opportunities. Inv