This question gives me an opportunity to highlight some of the things that our government has been doing to deal with surgical backlogs that, I might remind the member, existed prior to the pandemic.

We have, as a government, invested with our hospital partners over $800 million for surgical recovery to deal with exactly that: the surgical backlog that resulted as a result of the pandemic.

I can tell you that there are some innovative models that are happening in the province of Ontario that are leading to successes. This is not an either/or. This is an expansion. This is an opportunity for people who have been waiting far too long to get those necessary surgeries to happen in community and in a timely manner so that they can go back to work, back in their community and back with their families. It is a good-news story, and we will continue to invest in those innovative models.

Mr. Speaker, this is a member who is encouraging and actually participating in protests in front of community surgical units. I will not take lessons from a member who doesn’t understand that there are people who are waiting for surgeries who want to have access.

Clinical surgeries in community have existed in the province of Ontario for decades, and, I might also remind the member opposite, approved by Progressive Conservative governments, by Liberal governments and, yes, by NDP governments, because they understand the value of ensuring that people have access to publicly funded services where and when they need them.

I am happy that we finally are formalizing a process that patients have asked for for a long time, which is that we need timely access to diagnostic and surgery options in communities. We have, through Bill 60, a process that will ensure those applications will be assessed and reviewed based on needs, based on backlog, based on waiting lists, and they will be placed in appropriate communities that have those challenges. We will do that with oversight that ensures, through a licensing process and a renewal process, that oversight is there for the clinics, but most importantly for the patients.

This Conservative government claims its privatization of health care bill, Bill 60, will give Ontarians more access to health care they need when they need it. The reality is, only those who can afford to pay to play will get the care they need in private clinics and private hospitals. Bill 60 leaves vulnerable patients without deep pockets in dangerous situations where diseases will go undiagnosed and surgeries will be delayed, all while they live in chronic pain and depression as their illnesses get worse.

Speaker, my question is to the Premier. Why does this Premier believe that access to health care should depend on one’s ability to pay?

Karen Bender is a 73-year-old senior in my community, and she needs eye surgery. She has been told that she’ll be waiting eight months to a year and that her vision will get worse, if not completely untreatable, the longer she waits. Karen knows of other seniors who were upsold in private clinics, and she’s also aware that the Premier and the Minister of Health admitted that their profitization of health care bill has nothing in it to protect patients like her from extra charges.

So my question is back to the Premier: What advice would this Conservative Premier give Karen and others without deep pockets waiting and desperate for surgery, while they’ve left our publicly funded surgical operating rooms empty and unstaffed in our province?

I would say to Karen and the individuals who are waiting for surgery that you can thank Premier Ford and our government for expanding cataract surgeries in Ottawa, in Kitchener-Waterloo and Windsor. That will immediately ensure that existing capacity that is in community today right now is able to offer more cataract surgeries in the province of Ontario.

Specifically regarding patients who are concerned that they will be encouraged or forced to use something that they don’t want, the publicly funded system has a process in place today. Bill 60 actually expands that so that those individuals who have concerns who are not able to deal with them in the community are able to go to the Patient Ombudsman, something that does not exist prior to—

Interjections.