This is from OPSEU and JP Hornick, the president: “Privatization Makes Wait Times Worse, Not Better.” That’s for the member from Kingston. “Our health care system is in crisis, and it’s clear that privatization is not the solution. Putting private profits over people won’t fix wait times or solve the recruitment or retention crisis, which is causing staff to burn out and leave their jobs.

“This government has manufactured a crisis....”

My question to you: Can you tell me how many of the people from Niagara that you listed died in their homes that are owned by ConMed during COVID?

Thank you very much for your question. Actually, this question is—the opposition keeps bringing back again about privatization of health care. I don’t see any privatization in this. I see that as a public-private partnership. Small hospitals who have the medical capacity to offer operations and do cataract surgeries or eye surgeries—why don’t I as a government make use of that infrastructure? Why don’t I expand the hubs doing those surgeries from two hospitals to 20 centres and clear the backlog? Again, I don’t see that as privatization, because at the end of the day, the patient is getting the same service using the same card, their OHIP card. I don’t know where this “privatization” word came from, and I—

I’ll ask my question to the member from Oakville North–Burlington. Thank you for your remarks today. On this side of the House, we are deeply, deeply concerned about the privatization of our health care services. We know that private, for-profit care costs more. A knee surgery in a public, not-for-profit hospital costs about $10,000. It’s somewhere between $20,000 and $28,000 in a private, for-profit clinic. The Auditor General reports that we’ve got excess surgical spaces in our public, not-for-profit hospitals. Why isn’t your government using those? Why don’t you repeal Bill 124 so that we get more nurses and health care workers on the job? Why is your government creating a crisis in our public health care system, only to turn it over to private for-profit, where we’ll be paying much, much more?