On behalf of patients across Ontario, I wish to welcome Natalie Mehra from the Ontario Health Coalition, Michael Hurley from the Canadian Union of Public Employees, Erin Ariss from the Ontario Nurses’ Association—and a special welcome to every single person in this chamber here today who is showing their opposition to Bill 60.

I’m really honoured today to have the interns from the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development at Queen’s Park to watch question period. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

I’d also like to welcome the staff of the OUA led by Gord Grace, his leadership group and all the members that make up the OUA with respect to athletic directors and all the people who do all the great work in the universities across our province.

I’d like to welcome a few of the people who are here in opposition of Bill 60, starting with Angela Boakye, Mary Jo Nabuurs, Michelle Barraclough, Helen Hegedus, Nadine MacKinnon, Thea Dorsey, Virginia McGill Odette, Ann Peel, Michelle Robidoux, Seena Mozaffari, Alanna Kong, Amrit Koonar, Alexandra Radkewycz, Elizabeth Burrows, Aleksander Ivovic, John McVay, Maria Chinelli, Pegah Edalati, Mary Brown, Mike Lawler, Lisa Kilpatrick, Nancy Olivieri, Patricia Johnston, Genevieve Farago, Julia Lucas, Nina Nolan, Zenaida Rialubin, Gaye-Frances Alexander, Cheryl Waithe, Sue Hotte, Salah Shadir, Maureen Aslin, Brit Hancock, Lubaba Gemma, Maddy Fast, Mohammad Ali Aumeer, Lance Livingstone, Ron Vanderwalker, Nathan Zhu, Cathy Miller and many more.

Welcome to Queen’s Park. Welcome to your House.

Interjections.

I just want to take a moment and welcome all of the ministry interns, who are going to be working in different ministers’ offices over the summer, and a special welcome to Khalil and Matthew, who are going to be interns with the Ministry of Red Tape Reduction. I want to wish all of the 40 interns all the best over the next few months as they learn and continue to make contributions.

Over the past 30 years in Ontario, over 800 community clinics have provided health care services to Ontarians, paid for with their OHIP cards, in a timely and convenient way. Many Ontarians have already had positive experiences in receiving care with these clinics, which are often closer to their homes. Care in community clinics will be expanded if Bill 60 passes, to ensure more access to timely care for Ontarians.

The NDP seems to be more concerned with fighting for the status quo. This Premier and this government are fighting to ensure that Ontarians get timely access to care.

I would like to introduce Mr. Gerald Ding, the VP of information technology at Stanford International College and a former member of the Canadian Armed Forces. I would like to very much welcome him to Queen’s Park: Mr. Gerald Ding.

I want to welcome my friend Colleen James to Queen’s Park. Welcome to your House, Colleen.

I’d like to welcome this morning the guests here from PeerWorks: Allyson Theodorou, Andrea Schaefer, Tyrone Gamble, Calvin Prowse, Colene Allen, Elizabeth Tremblay, Rachel Bromberg. Welcome to your House.

Members will please take their seats.

Unless there are any objections, I’ll continue with introduction of visitors.

I understand the member for Ottawa–Vanier has a point of order.

It is now time for oral questions.

I’d like to welcome from my riding of Stormont–Dundas–South Glengarry my oldest daughter, Norah, who is skipping school this week to watch dad work.

I’m very pleased to say that, today, the page captain is from Oshawa. Sanskrati Goyal is our page captain, and she’s joined by her family today: her father, Mohit Kumar Goyal; her mother, Sonika Agrawal; brother, Samarth Goyal; and uncle, Ankit Agrawal. Welcome to Queen’s Park today.

From Ottawa, I would like to welcome Sue Hylland. She’s the director of sport services at the University of Ottawa. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

This morning, I would like to introduce Lisa, Brian and Brayden Vermet, family members of legislative page Olivia Vermet from St. Brigid Catholic school in Cambridge. Welcome to this House.

Mr. Speaker, it’s an honour for me to introduce a number of very special guests to the Legislature today from the great riding of Carleton: my constituency staff. We have my executive assistant, Candice Coates; my caseworker, John Morris; Anne Beach; Sonia Henry; Gabriella Campagna; Paul Giles; and, of course, my legislative assistant, Corey Scott. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

I’d like to welcome my son, Jackson, to the Legislature this morning. He served as a page last year, and today is his 15th birthday. Happy birthday, Jackson.

Good morning, Speaker. This question is for the Premier.

I want to welcome health care workers, advocates and ordinary Ontarians who are here in the galleries today to witness one of the greatest threats to the right to public health care that we’ve seen in our province for generations. Under Bill 60, we’re going to see even more emergency room closures because there won’t be enough staff to keep them open. People will pay more for care as investor profits are put first, and we’re going to see a two-tier system where a select few will jump to the front of the line and everyone else is going to have to wait even longer.

Knowing this, will the Premier drop his plan for two-tier investor-driven health care?

It’s my pleasure to welcome students, part of the Ontario Parliamentary Friends of Tibet summer program. We have Tenzin Dolker, placed with MPP Patrice Barnes; Tseyang Palmo, with MPP Trevor Jones; Tenzin Kelsang Tawo, with MPP Christine Hogarth; and Tenzin Wangmo, with me.

I’d also like to welcome from Parkdale–High Park my constituent Andrew Goldberg, who is here for question period.

I want to remind the government members opposite that it’s not just the people in this room who are watching carefully; it’s people all over Ontario. From Thunder Bay to Minden, from Chesley to Kingston, they are all rallying against Bill 60. They know that this bill is going to make their health care worse and not better, and they’re either going to have their voices heard today or at the next election.

Will the Premier listen to the voices of Ontarians or will he continue to put their health care ahead of companies trying to make a profit on the backs of sick people?

Speaker, he doesn’t have to take our word for it. We’ve already seen private delivery of surgical services fail Canadians. Quebec handed billions to private health care providers, only to see their workforce depleted and exhausted, with higher costs and worse outcomes for patients. BC changed course because of rampant illegal overbilling by private for-profit providers.

Speaker, the Premier has a chance to stop this scheme before it’s too late. And so, back to the Premier: Will he pull Bill 60 and instead invest in our health care workers, our public hospitals and patient care?

Speaker, if this is such a good deal for the people of Ontario, why is this Premier keeping the details a total secret?

It’s been revealed that the government is now working on a sole-sourced backroom deal with Zlatko Starkovski and his nebulous company Ontario Live.

To the Premier: Does he or does anyone in this government have an existing or a past connection with Mr. Starkovski?

Now, another Conservative insider, Carmine Nigro—who was appointed by this government, by the way, to be chair of Ontario Place, who is a good friend of the Premier and attended his family’s wedding reception—is brokering a backroom deal with Starkovski—

Interjections.

My question to the Premier is, does he have any idea how bad it looks to have one family friend brokering a deal with another family friend on behalf of his government?