Back pay. Thank you. The back pay will be $3.6 billion.

Instead of doing the right thing, accepting the court ruling that it’s unconstitutional and violates charter rights; instead of actually valuing health care workers, nurses, PSWs and everyone that works in a hospital, who have been capped at 1% now—and during the pandemic, also, collective bargaining rights were violated during that process around sick days and benefits and what have you, because if you work in the health care sector, apparently you’re not allowed to get sick.

But if the province actually loses the court case, the financial repercussions are monumental, and it will have to happen in a massive way. You can’t just keep fighting and fighting and fighting in court—although you have done that with the mandate letters; now you’ve lost four times. It’s just a common practice. It’s a transparency and accountability thing that the government is not so keen on, but cabinet ministers usually release their mandate letters, indicating their priorities, their directions, their vision for the ministry.

I’m really interested in reading the mandate letter for the Minister of Health, I have to say. I am. Because when you are actively underutilizing the operating rooms that exist and the surgical suites in Ontario, you are actively underfunding that particular pressure point that exists in the province of Ontario, and at the same time you’re proposing this parallel system of private profit-driven surgical suites, then I’m sure that mandate letter says this is the intentional goal: to create this two-tier system.

I see I’m running out of time, which can’t be real.

I think I just want to say, on the so-called transparency of the money, clearly there are some significant issues. The $2.9 billion that’s currently unallocated right now should be out there in the health care system. It should be part of the retention of the experienced, talented people that are working in the health care system right now.

The fact that we heard so clearly—and all the government members heard the same message. That’s the value of having a budgetary process which is open, public and transparent: that we all hear the same thing, and it’s captured in Hansard. What doesn’t work very well is the other parallel system that the Minister of Finance does, where they have their invite-only—and we ran into this issue in Niagara, right?—where the government has their own consultations that are not public and that are by invite only and you get three minutes, somebody rings a bell and you’re done. And we don’t have any documentation from those consultations, which would be valuable, don’t you think?

I want to thank the member opposite for the question.

Obviously, mental health is a huge priority for this government. That’s why, when we were first elected, we ran on a promise to invest $3.8 billion over 10 years into mental health and addictions. We’ve been doing that every year. We have an annualized increase in funding of $525 million going out to various community groups. And we want to make sure that we have the care that people need, which is culturally sensitive and appropriate care.

We’re very proud of the investments we have made—$525 million additional in annualized funding, which is a significant investment into that sector—and we’ll continue to work to do more.

Thank you for the question.

From when this government was first elected, it made a point of making substantial, unprecedented investments in mental health and addictions. It worked with all of the stakeholders and continues to work with children and youth mental health, CMHA and all the other agencies to build a continuum of care.

This is the government that created the Roadmap to Wellness. This is the government that created a ministry to work specifically on mental health and addictions and create the networks necessary to provide the supports for individuals.

We have identified where those gaps exist, and with a $525-million investment on an annualized basis, we’re building the system, filling the gaps, and ensuring that everyone in this province gets the support, the care, the help they need when and where they need it.