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.

I have two remarkable constituents who are here today, the president of Community Living Ontario, Michael Jacques, and his father, Marcel. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

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.

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?

The emergency department in Minden needs to stay open.

A police officer arrives at MilCun Training Center for pistol, carbine or rifle training—sometimes things go wrong. They’re 11 minutes to the emergency department in Minden.

The brand new Nesbitt arena has tournaments and training camps all year round. A kid gets hurt—it is three minutes’ drive to the Minden emergency department.

The 62 residents who live at Hyland Crest Long-Term Care need urgent care—it’s a zero-minute drive. They are attached to the hospital, but they won’t be able to go there anymore.

The residents of Minden and the surrounding area are here today at Queen’s Park. They came to Queen’s Park to ask for the minister’s help. They want her to use her power as Minister of Health to put a one-year moratorium on the closure of the emergency department of Minden hospital. Will she listen to them? Will she help them?

Interjections.

Minister, the shortage of family doctors puts additional pressure on our hospitals and emergency rooms. Angie in my community went to Lakeridge hospital’s ER with chest pains and emailed me while waiting in emerg. She was told that only one doctor was on duty and there were 119 patients waiting. I wonder how many of those people could have received faster care or avoided the ER if they were able to have seen a family doctor?

Premier, over 44,000 people in Durham region don’t have a family doctor. Can I tell people who are writing to their MPPs from the emergency room to keep waiting, or that help is on the way?

The region of Thunder Bay has at least 45,000 people without access to primary care. Greenstone is losing two doctors at the end of the month, and seniors are being left without access to any care whatsoever.

There are solutions: Further increase enrolment and create a learn-and-stay program for doctors at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine. Establish more nurse practitioner-led clinics. Reduce the administrative burden on doctors and create a centralized electronic records and referral system now, not in five years.

Will the government finally invest in the solutions so clearly identified by medical professionals that are not happening now?