I want to thank the member opposite for the question. As we conclude the session, we can reflect back on this past year as one of progress when it comes to affordability.

Putting party interests aside, this Parliament enacted a bill and a budget that has allowed us to cut child care fees by 50% for the families we represent—$8,000 to $10,000 in savings per year—and we will go further.

Of course, we need qualified ECEs. We need to recruit them and to retain the ones who work with our kids. It’s why in the program we signed with the federal government an additional dollar per hour has been committed per year—a commitment to install a wage floor for the first time and a clear commitment by the government to go even further.

Mr. Speaker, in addition to increasing access to the ECEs, increasing affordable child care options, we’re building 86,000 spaces. This is a monumental step forward for financial relief for the people of Ontario.

We’ll continue to work with the sector, with our workforce and our operators to make life more affordable for families across—

We’ve also committed to expand access to 86,000 spaces by announcing a $213-million start-up grant, where we literally help incentivize the marketplace—more spaces and therefore more workers in the communities that have a disproportionately under-represented amount of child care spaces to their population.

We’re going to get this right. We’re going to work together. We are going to make life affordable for moms and dads across this province.

There is no doubt that there are unique challenges for patients who are looking to access health care in northern Ontario or having to travel great distances to get those treatments, which is why we’ve invested $48.2 million in the Northern Health Travel Grant, which paid out nearly 150 individuals for those reimbursements.

I will say that I am particularly proud of some changes that we have been able to make recently on the grant, and that ensures that individuals can now apply electronically and get those reimbursements directly into their bank accounts. It means that there is not the unnecessary delay and red tape. It has been very helpful, particularly for individuals who have multiple trips and multiple treatments. That is one example of how we are improving this grant to make sure that people get their money back faster.

My question is to the Premier. Speaker, many constituents in northern Ontario must travel long distances to receive specialized health care. The broken Northern Health Travel Grant system forces patients to cover those travel costs and accommodations up front, and then they have to wait to be reimbursed. For example, Denise and her husband, Stephan, are seniors on a fixed income, and they need to come to Toronto to see Stephan’s neurologist. Denise told me Stephan will get 41 cents a kilometre, but only after the first hundred kilometres.

My question is, will the Premier remove cost-prohibitive barriers like this one that make it difficult for northerners to access proper care through the Northern Health Travel Grant?

My question is, will the Premier commit to increasing mileage and accommodation compensation so seniors like Stephan aren’t paying out of pocket to access essential medical care?