Later this morning, joining us from India is the high priest Swami Govind Dev Giriji Maharaj. I’d like to welcome him to Queen’s Park.

I am also pleased to welcome folks from Community Living Ontario, specifically from my riding, Amber Taylor, who is a council member, and the vice-president of CLO council, Niko Pupella. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

If there are no objections, I’d like to continue with the introduction of visitors.

I’ll next recognize the Minister for Seniors and Accessibility.

I’d like to welcome Community Living Oakville: Alexandra Hoeck Murray, the executive director, Nazeem Lahashmi, Hugo Troccoli and Andrea Interior.

I would like to welcome Carlene Wisdom and April Cleugh, area and regional managers from Christian Horizons. Christian Horizons is a non-profit organization providing services for adults with developmental or intellectual disabilities in Ontario and Saskatchewan. Back in 2019, I met their central district executive director Irene Moore and listened to their ideas of supporting for more affordable housing access. They now—

I’d like to welcome the grade 10 students from Francis Liebermann Catholic High School who are visiting Queen’s Park today. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

I want to give a special welcome to Elizabeth Witmer. Kitchener–Waterloo was well-served by her and that continues today. Thank you very much, Elizabeth.

Today being Lupus Awareness Day in Ontario, I am excited to welcome an amazing delegation from Lupus Ontario who have done so much to improve the lives of people. They include Diana Bozzo, Tanya Connacher, Yadira Castro, June Alikhan, Linda Keill and 16 others.

Good morning. I’d like to welcome my fellow Polish Canadian Kryss Weiss from Community Living Toronto. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

I’d like to welcome Community Living Ontario, Community Living Toronto and other local Community Living agencies across the province to the Legislature this morning. I’d like to, in particular, give a shout-out to Brad Saunders, Chris Beesley, Jo-Anne Demick, Shawn Pegg, Petronilla Ndebele, Brianna MacLellan, Sarah MacDonald and Julia Silani. I look forward to meeting with all of you later on this afternoon at the reception. Thank you, and welcome to Queen’s Park.

In northern Ontario, there’s a shortage of 350 family doctors and specialists. We also know that nursing stations on reserves are staffed by federal and agency nurses. It’s like this: Federal nurses have to reach out to on-call doctors by phone to provide a diagnosis. That’s normal in the north. That doctor shortage leads to unnecessary suffering. It leads to unnecessary deaths of patients in far northern Ontario.

I ask, how is this going to immediately help the people of northern Ontario suffering because of the doctor shortage?

Minister, more than 500,000 people living in Toronto and Mississauga don’t have a family doctor, including over 136,000 of the lowest-income earners. Half of the people without a doctor in Toronto and Mississauga live in racialized neighbourhoods.

Doctors are only human. They can only take about 1,000 to 1,200 patients, although many doctors have much larger rosters. At this rate, the GTA will need about 400 more doctors to meet the demand in the region. What plans does this government have to immediately recruit hundreds of more doctors in the GTA?

On behalf of myself and the member from Chatham-Kent–Leamington and the member from Windsor–Tecumseh, we would like to welcome Karen Bolger, executive director of Community Living Essex County, and Brianne Taggart, Ray Renaud, Beth Renaud, Marilyn Godard, Shelbey Pillon, Cynthia Castellucci, Amanda Pritchard and Kirti Ladwa. Welcome.

Ma question est pour la ministre de la Santé.

Over 2.2 million Ontarians do not have a family doctor; more than 360,000 of them are children. That number increases each and every month. It will reach three million people by 2025, as fewer medical students choose family practice and more family physicians retire. The growing physician shortage will put more pressure on already overwhelmed hospitals, emergency departments, urgent care and even our long-term-care homes.

Family doctors need this government’s support to continue to provide top-quality care to us, like access to team-based care, like reduced administrative burdens, like an electronic health record that actually works. Will this government listen to Ontario family physicians and act upon their recommendations?

From my area, I’d like to welcome everyone from Community Living, but especially Community Living Essex County. Karen Bolger and the team at Community Living Essex County do an incredible job, not just for Essex, but for all of Windsor and Essex county. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

Thank you, Speaker. I knew it would come around to me eventually. I see that Patricia Franks is here from the beautiful riding of Dufferin–Caledon, no doubt to mark Community Living Day, so welcome.

Why are we making those investments? Because we understand that there are short-, medium- and long-term plans that we can put in place and that we have put in place, including an investment of $33 million to make sure that an additional 100 graduates are going to have the positions and availability to practise, train and teach and practise in the province of Ontario.

Since 2018, we have added an additional 1,800 physicians in the province of Ontario. We have put in place programs specifically for northern Ontario to match emergency departments with peer-to-peer ED doctors to make sure that they have access to peers who are there for them to be able to work through issues and problems as they appear before their emergency departments.

We’ll continue to do that work. It is not one issue; it is not one solution. We are doing everything with our partners, including in a partnership to increase family medicine by a partnership between Queen’s University and Lakeridge that actually is focused on training new family docs to make sure that we have the capacity in the province of Ontario to serve our growing population.

Another one of course is the 911 models of care, where we don’t just force paramedics to take individuals to emergency departments. We have the opportunity now, whether it is for long-term care, palliative and now actually expanding it into diabetes and epilepsy—

Interjections.

Interjections.

There is no one in this chamber who doesn’t understand and appreciate that with a growing and aging population, we need to do better. What I will say to the NDP and the Liberals is, where would we have been if they hadn’t cut those 50 residency spots? We would have had 250 additional practitioners in the province today.

We’re putting the work in. We’re making those investments. The member opposite can either choose to work with us or continue to complain. But you will see that there are already improvements happening in community because we are making the investment, as a government.

There is no doubt that when changes happen, including emergency department closures, it is very challenging for the community. But I want to reassure and remind the member opposite that these are local decisions made by local leadership, local hospitals.

Interjections.

My question is for the Minister of Health.

Nearly 65,000 people in Kitchener-Waterloo do not have a doctor. A quarter of those people are among the lowest income earners. They can’t afford to pay an annual subscription to a clinic or fees for virtual care. Thousands of people who could be getting proactive, preventative care are going to the emergency room when their illnesses have progressed. So many lives can be saved with early intervention.

What will this government do to support family doctors to hire more administrative and clinical support so that they spend more time with their patients, as the Ontario College of Family Physicians has recommended this government do?

I just heard the Minister of Health talk about getting care into communities. We have people from Minden today whose emergency room is being shut down. You’re taking the care out of their community, and it’s absolutely shameful.

When I asked in this House about the closure of the Minden emergency room last week, the Minister of Health said that the decision was made at the local level and refused to take responsibility for it. The Ontario Health Coalition informs me that this is the first time in Ontario that a Minister of Health has refused to take responsibility for a hospital closure. Because of this closure, lives will be at risk over the summer because of the long ride to the Haliburton hospital.

Does the minister understand that those lives will be her responsibility?