Minden’s local hospital closed on June 1 due to a staffing shortage and despite overwhelming opposition from the local community. Minden is far from alone. Lanark county, Guelph, Hamilton, Perth, Grand River, Windsor, Alexandria, Wingham, Thessalon, Kemptville, Seaforth, Ottawa, Bowmanville, Clinton, Orangeville, Carleton Place, Essex county, Kingston, Waterloo, Credit Valley, Smiths Falls, London, Chesley, Fort Erie, Port Colborne—all communities that have seen either no ambulances available or the closure of hospital services in the last year due to staffing shortages.

The staffing crisis continues in our health care system, and the government still refuses to repeal Bill 124 that suppresses the wages of health care workers. At the same time, staffing agencies like Canadian Health Labs are convincing hundreds of health care workers to leave their workplaces by offering them double the salaries they normally earn. The company made $154 million from just 500 nurses and PSWs they hired out of our public health systems. Their plan is to hire as many as 5,000 people. These agencies take health care workers out from the public system and sell them back at huge profits.

This is the systemic destruction of our public health care system, and we the public end up paying way more for declining services. I can only think this is happening due to the Conservative agenda to undermine the public health care system, because no one can be so incompetent to not see the damage these policies are creating.

I will say that not only are we stepping up, but we have stepped up. We had a top-up of funding directly to Ottawa of $2.6 million through the Dedicated Offload Nurses Program. The member opposite knows that I’ve spoken about this program many times because it is something that paramedics and the hospital clinicians see as a real game-changer, ensuring that paramedics can get back out into community and make sure that they have appropriate care within the emergency department.

We’ve done that work. I met with the mayor of Ottawa on Monday, spoke to him again yesterday. I meet regularly and talk regularly to the Ottawa hospitals. We know that they are using effectively the 911 model of care, where paramedics, with the patient’s approval, can take individuals somewhere else other than the emergency department. These are real changes on the ground that are making a difference in the lives of the people of Ontario.