I would like to welcome Manny and Roslyn from my office.

You’re not leaving today, but I’m glad that you’re part of our team. Welcome.

I will highlight what the Auditor General’s report on outpatient surgeries in Ontario emphasized—that the experience in other Canadian jurisdictions is that community surgical centres can treat 20% to 30% more patients within the same amount of time. Why are other Canadian jurisdictions doing it, and why is Ontario doing it more? Because we want people to get access to surgery and not sit in wait lines.

With the greatest of respect, the member opposite is dismissing the fact that we’ve actually worked with the Ontario Medical Association to make sure that there are appropriate billing codes for our primary care practitioners who are treating and assisting individuals with long COVID. It is an important piece to make sure that individuals with long COVID are not left abandoned by our health care system—which is not going to happen under this government. To suggest that this is a dismissive and not important piece to ensure that individuals who are suffering with long COVID have the support that they need in the province of Ontario, I think, shows a great deal of disrespect to those individuals.

There is excellent work happening, in our research hospital facilities as well as at our universities, to study and assess the impacts of long COVID. As we develop and see how those outcomes continue, we will be there, as we have been through the entire pandemic, to make sure that they have the resources to continue to serve these important long COVID patients.