I’d like to welcome to the gallery today former Brantford–Brant and current Oakville fire chief Paul Boissonneault.

I’m pleased to welcome to Queen’s Park this morning my constituency assistant Tina Gates. I’d also like to welcome constituents Aalanna Ramona Rusnak and her mom Jessica. In 2022, Aalanna was crowned Miss Teenage Ontario Southwest. She went on to become Miss Teenage Canada and will be travelling to Carousel later this year to compete on the world stage. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

I’d like to say good morning to page Silas Dixon, who is the captain today, and to welcome his family: Joanna Dixon, his mother; father Ross Dixon; his sister Imogen Dixon and grandmother Sylvia Dixon. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

I wanted to welcome a great friend of mine and the former MP for Nipissing, Jay Aspin.

I would like to introduce and welcome to the House Leslie Ferrari, president and board member, Golf Ontario; David Herrera, board member; and we’ve already introduced Jay Aspin, former Conservative MP for Nipissing–Timiskaming. Welcome to the House.

Continuing with the introduction by my colleague, we have Jeremy Inglis, Mark MacDonald, Jeremy Parkin, Kent Readman, Brent Thomas, Jason Whiteley, Mark Tishman and Karthik Swaminathan, all from the Ontario Association of Fire Chiefs, and I’m asking you to join them tonight at the reception from 5:00 to 7:00 in the dining room.

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

From the riding of Markham–Unionville, Christopher Au; from Ajax, Ameer Awan; from Barrie–Springwater–Oro-Medonte, Aananya Bakshi; from the riding of Parkdale–High Park, Luke DeBoni; from the riding of Oakville, Pierre Santiago Diaz; from Don Valley West, Silas Dixon; from London West, Arisa Golder; from Etobicoke Centre, Sara Gomes; from Scarborough North, Dina Hashimi; from Windsor–Tecumseh, Giulia Izgherian; from Ottawa South, Tara Kaushik; from Simcoe–Grey, Solomon Kogan; from the riding of Nipissing, Amara Lesanthan; from Mississauga–Lakeshore, Halle Ma; from Sarnia–Lambton, Cynthia Rayson; from Markham–Thornhill, Evelyn Su; from Davenport, Sally Tabachnick; from Scarborough–Guildwood, Shlokh Uplopwar; from Toronto–St. Paul’s, Milan Viswanathan; and from Brampton North, Raisha Zaman.

Welcome, pages.

Applause.

It’s my pleasure to welcome to the House today in the members’ gallery Mr. Michael Yermus, a leading Ontario trial lawyer and advocate for our fellow citizens, and his cousin—professional excellence runs in the family—Dr. Ryan Yermus, a dedicated physician specializing in family medicine. Welcome to the House, to these gentlemen.

I’d like to welcome to the Legislature Nancy O’Brien and Stephanie Dobbs, two of the heroes who brought forward sexual harassment issues in the city of Ottawa, as well as Emily McIntosh and Farah Grozelle, from The Women of Ontario Say No, who are advocating for the elimination of sexual abuse and harassment at municipal city councils across the province.

I have a long list of visitors I would like to welcome this morning so please bear with me: from northwestern Ontario, representing We the Nuclear Free North, Charles Faust, Bonnie Satten, Wendy O’Connor, Brennain Lloyd, Neecha Dupuis, Audrey Redman; and from South Bruce-Teeswater, representing Protect Our Waterways—No Nuclear Waste, Anja van der Vlies, Rita Groen, Gerald Groen, Yoka Scott, Michelle Stein, Sharon McDonald, Jim McDonald, Don Wall, Linda Wall and Bill Noll.

Thank you so much for coming. Welcome to your House.

It’s my pleasure to welcome the folks from the Canadian Polish Congress and the Canadian Polish Business Association in Windsor. They’re here to celebrate Polish Heritage Month and the 550th birthday of Nicolaus Copernicus. I’d like to welcome Jerry Barycki—although Jerry is not here right now; he’s actually setting up the display in the reception room, which I hope everyone will come to—Ewa Barycka, Barbara Koczwara, Marianna Gajewska, Victor Wolanski, Rosemary Wolanski, David Makarczyk and Suzie Sawicki.

Remarks in Polish.

I’d like to welcome all the members from Nuclear Free North to Queen’s Park today, sitting in various galleries. I’d also like to welcome two of my staff from my constituency office, Katerina Davids and Svend-Emil Poulsen. Thank you for your great work and for joining me at Queen’s Park today.

I want to welcome members of my team Lana Barkan and Mandana Hezar. Welcome.

It is my pleasure to welcome my constituents to the House. We have Jill Zelmanovits and Helen DeBoni, mother and sister of Luke DeBoni, a student of Runnymede Junior and Senior Public School who is a legislative page with us here. Helen is also a former page. Welcome.

I’d like to welcome my good friend John Tomczak, the president of the Canadian Polish Congress; my mentor, Jerry Barycki, the president of the Polish-Canadian Business and Professional Association of Windsor; as well as Wladyslaw Reymont Foundation president, Mr. Kazimierz Chrapka, and the entire Polish delegation. Welcome to your House.

I understand the member for Guelph has a point of order.

Minister of Health.

The final supplementary.

The Minister of Health.

I’ve made it very clear that our government is focused on making sure that the Eglinton Crosstown LRT opens, so that it is ready for commuters as soon as possible. But our number one priority is that when it opens, it is safe for commuters and it is safe for transit operators. Mr. Speaker, that is the number one lesson that we learned from the public inquiry into the Ottawa LRT.

I have made my expectations clear to Metrolinx. I expect them to get a credible schedule from CTS as soon as possible. But Mr. Speaker, safety is our number one priority, and we will not waver from that. It is essential that the service is safe for everyone to use. We are focused on getting it done, and we will.

Mr. Speaker, our plan was endorsed by city council, by York region and by the federal government, who recognizes our plan as so nationally significant that they agreed to fund 40% of the cost of our GTA and Hamilton transit plan.

The members opposite stand up in this House and claim to be defenders of transit, but when it actually comes to voting in favour of it—whether it’s for operational support during the pandemic, which they couldn’t bring themselves to support, or if it’s new lines that are—

Good morning, Speaker. Dozens of business owners from Minden are here at Queen’s Park today to continue to push this government to keep their emergency room open. Under this government’s leadership it’s set to close the day after tomorrow. It’s closing at a time when the seasonal population in the area soars with kids’ summer camps, cottagers and, of course, tourists. It means thousands of Ontarians will have to travel farther and farther away just to access emergency services. This creates a domino effect on the ERs in those communities, putting even more strain on an already strained system.

Speaker, will the Premier tell the business owners here today that he will keep their emergency room open?

It’s about responsibility. This government has been in office for five long years and they continue to skip out on their responsibilities to the people of this province.

Today, the Conservatives are turning their backs on Minden families, on cottagers, on kids in summer camps. They’re turning their backs on local business owners, some of whom closed up shop today just to be here. The Conservatives are choosing to help private health care companies, some of which are run by this Conservative Party’s donors, instead of local job creators who are here today.

Speaker, will the Premier take some responsibility and start putting the needs of Ontarians ahead of his profiteering insiders?

Interjections.

Cities like Kingston, Kitchener, Owen Sound, Windsor, Cornwall—it isn’t just rural areas that are suffering, either. They’re all facing alarming shortages of family physicians. This isn’t normal, Speaker, and it shouldn’t be normal. Shamefully, this government’s misguided actions are only going to make it worse, as doctors leave the public system to work at private for-profit clinics.

Speaker, to the Premier: Will he invest in the public system and get Ontarians the care they deserve instead of selling off their health to the highest bidder?

Interjections.

Yesterday, when I asked the minister why she ignored all those warnings, she blamed everybody else. How can the public expect things to get better when the minister refuses to take responsibility for the Eglinton Crosstown P3 fiasco?

Why is the minister still defending these costly and risky private contracts instead of restoring public delivery of transit infrastructure?

I can only imagine how challenging this decision was for the Haliburton Highlands Health Services leadership and board. But I want to reassure the people of Minden and that community that I am confident that this decision was not taken lightly.

Having said that, I want to highlight, through my supplementary, the many different programs that are available to community hospitals across Ontario as we work with them as partners to make sure that we have programs and incentives available to many accessing programs, including directing the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario and the College of Nurses of Ontario to quickly expedite those internationally educated graduates who want to train and work in the province of Ontario. I will share further examples in my supplementary.

But I want to talk about the programs that are available to the 140 hospitals corps that have been using them. Listen, if Haliburton Highlands decides to look and explore some of these programs, we are obviously going to work with them, as we have with every other hospital.

Last year, through our efforts and the efforts of Ontario Health, we were able to avert nearly 1,500 emergency room shift closures that were prevented because of the work that we have been doing with Ontario Health, with our health care partners and in the ministry. So when we talk about the 911 models of care, where paramedics can take individuals to facilities other than an emergency department—it could be a long-term-care facility; it could be a palliative care facility—dedicated officers—

The Premier often says that we will have the backs of our stakeholders, of our partners. We are doing that in the Ministry of Health, and we will continue to do that. As I said, if Haliburton Highlands decides or wishes to explore any of these programs, we are happy to be a willing partner, as we have with so many hospitals across Ontario.