My question is to the Premier.

Earlier this week, I was proud to table a motion to ensure that a key test for detecting prostate cancer is fully covered under our universal health care system.

One in eight Canadian men is expected to receive a prostate cancer diagnosis in their lifetime; 28 will be diagnosed with prostate cancer today in the province of Ontario. We also know that Black men are at significantly higher risk of getting prostate cancer.

This year, 10,500 people will receive the horrible news that they have prostate cancer; 1,750 will die. That means nearly five people will die every day with prostate cancer. But 100% of the people who are detected early with prostate cancer will survive five years or longer. Early detection using PSA tests can save lives.

Will the government move forward on this motion and ensure there are no barriers to early detection of prostate cancer in Ontario?

Back to the Premier: Across our country, currently eight out of 10 provinces and three territories fully cover the PSA test when requested by a physician. That means Ontario is one of the few exceptions across Canada when it comes to ensuring everyone has equal access to this test. This test is an important tool in the tool box for physicians to ensure early detection of prostate cancer. Early detection will save lives and money—upwards of $60 million in our health care system.

For the second time, I was happy to be joined by Dr. Edmonds from the Canadian Cancer Society to introduce my motion. He was able to discuss the importance of early detection.

Why does the government refuse to join eight provinces and three territories and listen to the Canadian Cancer Society, and cover the PSA test for those with a prostate in Ontario so we can save lives?

My question is to the Minister of Indigenous Affairs and Northern Development.

Because of the leadership demonstrated by our government, we are ensuring that all Ontarians have an opportunity to participate in our growing economy.

We recognize that Indigenous communities deserve reliable sources of energy. They deserve infrastructure that connects them to our province, and they deserve the opportunity to participate fully and meaningfully in our shared economic prosperity.

Can the minister of Indigenous Affairs and Northern Development please inform the House how our government plans to increase economic prosperity across the north?

Under the previous Liberal government, supported by the NDP, they drove jobs out of our province and failed to unlock Ontario’s full economic potential, especially for the people of northern Ontario. We do not believe that this is fair.

It is clear that transformational investments in infrastructure will lead to long-term economic growth across all of Ontario and deliver investments for the north.

Can the minister please elaborate further about the importance of supporting Indigenous-led projects and the benefits they will provide for their communities in rural, remote, northern areas of our province?

Thank you to the member opposite for raising this important issue and highlighting the value that we have put, in the province of Ontario, on early detection—because we understand that early detection and ultimately treatment leads to far better outcomes.

Based on clinical guidelines established by the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care, OHIP currently funds prostate-specific antigen tests for men who are: (1) receiving treatment for prostate cancer; (2) being followed for treatment for prostate cancer; and (3) suspected of prostate cancer because of their family history and the results of their physical exam.

Absolutely, Ontarians who are concerned should be speaking to their primary care physicians, because they can get that test through those conversations, if the family physician clinically assesses and deems that that is appropriate.

Again, I absolutely support the member’s advocacy on early detection and having those conversations with your primary care physicians. But most international and national guidelines and recommendations—including the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care, the United States Preventive Services Task Force and the American College of Physicians—recommend against screening for prostate cancer using the PSA test due to the lack of evidence.

We need to have clinicians making these decisions, not politicians. Absolutely, have the conversations with your primary care physicians, but let’s leave the clinical advice to the clinicians and the experts in the field.

I want to also acknowledge the incredible work that all of our allied health professionals have been doing throughout the pandemic, whether it was prior to vaccines, with the incredible assistance that happened—entire health care systems stepping up and making sure that Canada and Ontario were second in the world in making sure that our citizens were protected.

When will the work start? It started in 2020, when we as a government made an investment and said we are building a stronger, more robust health care system by adding an additional 12,000 health human resources. We’re doing it with investments in our colleges. We’re doing it with investments in new positions available for young people who want to be in the health care professions. We started that in 2020. We will continue to do that work.

The Premier and I had an opportunity to have a round table with the representation of nurses and the ideas coming forward. We’re now driving those forward and saying: How can we implement that? How can we add to what we’ve already done with the Learn and Stay program to ensure that young people who want to train as RNs in Ontario have that opportunity, through free tuition and books? How do we expand the opportunities so that we do not have a continuation of the backlogs in diagnostic imaging and other critically important services that the people of Ontario deserve in their communities?

We’ve done that work. We will continue to have those conversations and listen to those innovations.

I am very proud of the fact that we have health care workers in the province of Ontario who continue to give 110% because they know it’s what they can do in their community and it’s what the people of Ontario expect.

Supplementary question.

I’m proud to represent the great people of Oakville North–Burlington, a community that is home to a thriving and innovative economy of entrepreneurs.

Regrettably, under the previous Liberal government, the goal of unlocking entrepreneurship and business opportunities for women was not fully supported. The cost of child care, red tape and taxes quickly spiralled out of control, making entrepreneurship too complex and costly.

Thanks to the investments made by our government, Ontario is now seen as a competitive and supportive place for businesses to invest and create jobs.

Can the Associate Minister of Women’s Social and Economic Opportunity please explain what our government is doing to help young women entrepreneurs start and grow their businesses?

Ma question est pour la ministre de la Santé.

The Ontario Association of Medical Radiation Sciences is here today. They represent radiation therapists, sonographers, and radiological, nuclear medicine and MRI technologists. They are the health care professionals who perform critical diagnostic tests and therapy on the front lines of our health care system. They recently polled their members, who said they are overworked, burned out and facing the same staffing shortages as all professionals working in health care right now. This is a message that all health care workers are trying to get the government to acknowledge, to respond to.

Minister, how long will the government take before they take action to deal with this health human resources crisis in medical radiation sciences?

Today, representatives from 295,000 health care workers are here to try to get the government to pay attention to this crisis, to listen to their solution.

Will the minister agree to listen to health representatives from OCHU, CUPE, ONA, OPSEU/SEFPO, Unifor and SEIU who are here today at Queen’s Park? They have solutions. Will you meet with them?

I want to thank the member for that question and for her important advocacy and leadership for the people of Hamilton.

Speaker, let me be abundantly clear: This is absolutely unacceptable. Upon hearing of the situation in Hamilton, I was angry, like many of the good people of Hamilton, including my family who live there. I was angry for the people who are yet again hearing about how their city and the lack of oversight has failed to protect their waters. I was angry that this lack of oversight has happened for 26 years, even after all that the people of Hamilton have gone through.

I’m happy to report that upon notification of the spill, my ministry took immediate action. We sent an environmental officer over to Hamilton, who’s working closely with the municipality to block any further sewage flow, to stop further environmental damage and move immediately to address this situation.

I look forward to informing the Legislature of further action that this government is taking in the supplemental.

Again, the continued lack of oversight is simply unacceptable.

I had a very good conversation with the new mayor of Hamilton, and I commend her for speaking of being transparent with the people of Hamilton—our government and I agree.

That’s why, immediately upon learning of this latest spill and speaking with the mayor of Hamilton, I’ve instructed my ministry to require Hamilton to audit its entire sewage infrastructure and come up with a remediation plan to clean this mess up.

We’re going to work closely with the new mayor and the city of Hamilton to address this so that this never happens again. It’s unacceptable. The people deserve better, and thanks to this member from Hamilton, they’re going to get it.

We are hearing alarming reports in the media about a sewage spill in Hamilton. As reported, this spill has been ongoing for the past 26 years. According to reports in the media, the spill was only discovered inadvertently from previous video footage. The people of my riding and all Hamiltonians are concerned now about the soundness of our community’s water infrastructure system.

Speaker, my question is to the Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks. What is our government doing to protect Hamilton’s water infrastructure to stop events like this from happening again?

What further action is our government, and in particular the Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks, pursuing to ensure that this situation is properly addressed?

I’m just rising in accordance with standing order 59 to outline the order of business for next week.

On Monday, November 28, in the afternoon, we will proceed with Bill 46, the Less Red Tape, Stronger Ontario Act.

We will continue with Bill 46 on the morning of Tuesday, November 29. In the afternoon routine, there will be a statement by the ministry by Minister Fullerton on the Wrapped in Courage campaign for Woman Abuse Prevention Month. In the afternoon, we will again continue with Bill 46. In the evening, private members’ public business will be private member’s notice of motion number 15—the member for Windsor–Tecumseh.

On Wednesday, November 30, in the morning, we’re back to Bill 46. In the afternoon, there will be a statement by Minister McNaughton on McIntyre Powder; then back to Bill 46—and in the evening, member’s notice of motion number 19, standing in the name of the member for Oakville North–Burlington.

On Thursday, December 1, in the morning, we will be back to Bill 26, Strengthening Post-secondary Institutions and Students Act. In the afternoon, we’re back to Bill 26. In the evening, we will be dealing with Bill 27 standing in the name of the member for Timiskaming–Cochrane.

Deferred vote on the motion for second reading of the following bill:

Bill 24, An Act to amend the Regulated Health Professions Act, 1991 and the Independent Health Facilities Act to address unfair fees charged to patients for health care services / Projet de loi 24, Loi modifiant la Loi de 1991 sur les professions de la santé réglementées et la Loi sur les établissements de santé autonomes pour traiter de la facturation d’honoraires injustes aux patients à l’égard des services de soins de santé.

Thank you to the associate minister for her response. Our entrepreneurs are a critical foundation to Ontario’s economic growth and prosperity, but, as we know, starting a business is hard work and filled with great risk.

Unfortunately, under the previous Liberal government, supported by the NDP, the dream of small business ownership was challenging and costly.

Our government is reversing the harmful and destructive policies of the past.

I know that small businesses in my own community of Oakville North–Burlington serve a vital role in the strength of our local economy.

Can the minister share with us what our government is doing to help empower women to unlock their full economic potential through entrepreneurship opportunities?

Yes, Speaker. This legislation, the Rent Control for All Tenants Act, would reverse the government’s decision to end rent control for units built after 2018 and extend rent control protections to all units.

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas vulnerable road users are not specifically protected by law; and

“Whereas Ontario’s Highway Traffic Act allows drivers who seriously injure or kill a vulnerable road user to avoid meaningful consequences, facing only minimal fines; and

“Whereas the friends and families of victims are unsatisfied with the lack of consequences and the government’s responses to traffic accidents that result in death or injury to a vulnerable road user;

“Therefore we, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to direct the government of Ontario to commit to reducing the number of traffic fatalities and injuries to vulnerable road users; create meaningful consequences that ensure responsibility and accountability for drivers who share the road with pedestrians, cyclists, road construction workers, emergency responders and other vulnerable road users; allow friends and family of vulnerable road users whose death or serious injury was caused by an offending driver to have their victim impact statement heard in person, in court, by the driver responsible; and pass Bill 40, Moving Ontarians Safely Act.”

I fully support this petition and will affix my signature to it.

Can I make a point of order?

I have a petition in support of the Stay Home If You Are Sick Act. It reads:

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas there is overwhelming evidence to show that paid sick days significantly reduce the spread of infectious disease, promote preventive health care and reduce health care system costs; and

“Whereas 60% of Ontario workers do not have access to paid sick days, and cannot afford to lose their pay if they are sick; and

“Whereas low-wage and precarious workers are the most likely to be denied paid sick days; and

“Whereas enabling workers to stay home when they are sick without losing pay helps limit the spread of illness in the workplace and allows workers to recover faster; and

“Whereas during an infectious disease emergency, it is unreasonable and dangerous to public health to make workers choose between protecting their communities and providing for their families; and

“Whereas legislating paid sick days through the Employment Standards Act, with transitional financial support for struggling small businesses, will ensure that workers have seamless, uninterrupted access to their pay;

“Therefore we, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to immediately pass Bill 4, the Stay Home If You Are Sick Act, to provide Ontario workers with 10 annual employer-paid days of personal emergency leave and 14 days of paid leave in the case of an infectious disease emergency.”

I couldn’t agree more with this petition, will affix my signature and will send it to the table with page Camilla.

Supplementary?

The division bells rang from 1145 to 1150.

On November 23, 2022, Madame Gélinas moved second reading of Bill 24, An Act to amend the Regulated Health Professions Act, 1991 and the Independent Health Facilities Act to address unfair fees charged to patients for health care services.

All those in favour of the motion will please rise and remain standing until recognized by the Clerk.

Second reading negatived.

There being no further business this morning, this House stands in recess until 1 p.m.

The House recessed from 1154 to 1300.

Report deemed adopted.

Ms. Karpoche moved first reading of the following bill:

Bill 48, An Act to amend the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006 with respect to rules relating to rent / Projet de loi 48, Loi modifiant la Loi de 2006 sur la location à usage d’habitation en ce qui concerne les règles relatives au loyer.

First reading agreed to.

I have a petition to the Ontario Legislative Assembly.

“For Meaningful Climate Action Withdraw Bill 23.

“Whereas our planet is undergoing significant warming with adverse consequences for health, for agriculture, for infrastructure and our children’s future;

“Whereas the costs of inaction are severe, such as extreme weather events causing flooding and drought;

“Whereas Canada has signed the Paris accord which commits us to acting to keep temperature e rise under 1.5 degrees Celsius;

“We, the undersigned, call upon the government of Ontario to withdraw Bill 23 and to create a new bill to meet our housing needs that is compatible with protecting the greenbelt, creating affordable housing in the current urban boundaries, and meeting our climate targets.”

I’ll just gladly sign this and submit it to the Legislature.

This petition reads as follows:

“Stay Home If You Are Sick Act.

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas there is overwhelming evidence to show that paid sick days significantly reduce the spread of infectious disease, promote preventive health care and reduce health care system costs; and

“Whereas 60% of Ontario workers do not have access to paid sick days, and cannot afford to lose their pay if they are sick; and

“Whereas low-wage and precarious workers are the most likely to be denied paid sick days; and

“Whereas enabling workers to stay home when they are sick without losing pay helps limit the spread of illness in the workplace and allows workers to recover faster; and

“Whereas during an infectious disease emergency, it is unreasonable and dangerous to public health to make workers choose between protecting their communities and providing for their families; and

“Whereas legislating paid sick days through the Employment Standards Act, with transitional financial support for struggling small businesses, will ensure that workers have seamless, uninterrupted access to their pay;

“Therefore we, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to immediately pass Bill 4, the Stay Home If You Are Sick Act, to provide Ontario workers with 10 annual employer-paid days of personal emergency leave and 14 days of paid leave in the case of an infectious disease emergency.”

I am very happy to provide my support to this petition. I’m going to sign it, and then I’m going to hand it over to page Kennedy to table with the Clerk.

Thank you for the question. Just look at the name of my ministry—social and economic opportunity. These two things have not been paired by accident. It’s because our government knows that for women to thrive and succeed in Ontario’s economy, they first need to overcome social barriers that are holding them back, like dealing with gender-based violence, trying to succeed in a field where women are under-represented, or trying to navigate the system and access services. If you have these barriers, you’re not going to be able to take control of your economic future. We are working to address those underlying issues so that women can enter entrepreneurship challenge-free and stay there.

I met with Paro, a women-led organization in Thunder Bay dedicated to advancing women and an Investing in Women’s Futures Program recipient. Their services were able to help many women, throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, pivot from bricks and mortar to the online market successfully and continue to grow their business in the post-pandemic economy.

If we’re going to create a successful and robust post-pandemic economy, women must be at the forefront in entrepreneurial and leadership roles.

Again, when women succeed, Ontario succeeds.

J’aimerais remercier Ashlee Lachapelle de Dowling dans mon comté pour ces pétitions.

« Soins de santé : pas à vendre.

« À l’Assemblée législative de l’Ontario :

« Alors que les » Ontariennes et les Ontariens « reçoivent les soins basés sur leurs besoins et non leur capacité à payer;

« Alors que le gouvernement de » M. « Ford veut privatiser notre système de soins de santé;

« Alors que la privatisation poussera les infirmières, les médecins et » autres travailleurs de la santé « hors de nos hôpitaux publics et ajoutera des coûts aux patients; »

Ils demandent à l’Assemblée législative « d’arrêter immédiatement tous les plans visant à privatiser le système de soins de santé de l’Ontario et de résoudre la crise des soins de santé en :

« —abrogeant la loi 124 pour recruter, retenir, retourner et respecter les travailleurs et travailleuses de la santé avec de meilleurs salaires et » de meilleures « conditions de travail;

« —certifiant les titres de compétences de dizaines de milliers d’infirmières et d’autres professionnels de la santé formés à l’international » qui vivent « en Ontario;

« —incitant les professionnel(le)s de la santé à choisir de vivre et travailler dans le nord de » la province.

J’appuie cette pétition. J’y affixe mon nom et je demande à Mabel de l’amener à la table des greffiers.