As with others, I would like to welcome the Ontario Medical Association. I am pleased to recognize the doctors in the public gallery who have come from across Ontario to meet with MPPs to share their solutions for increasing patient access to care.

As part of today, the OMA is hosting a panel discussion with doctors who will be sharing solutions for reducing wait times, addressing the doctor shortage and expanding palliative care. The event starts at noon in room 230.

I would also like to recognize and introduce the leaders of the Ontario Medical Association, who are in the members’ gallery: CEO, Allan O’Dette; board chair, Dr. Cathy Faulds; and president, Dr. Rose Zacharias. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

I will answer that question the same way I answered that question in August: No, no, no. We will continue to fund health care in the province of Ontario so that people get the health care they deserve in the communities they need to have that access to care. We have incredible doctors, nurses, physician assistants—I can go on and on—who are doing that work in hospitals, in community, in our long-term-care homes, and that work will continue.

We have expanded the number of nurses who are training in the province of Ontario. We actually have programs that they can learn and stay, where we pay for their tuition and their books. We have expanded the number of physicians who can train in the province of Ontario. We have worked with the College of Physicians and Surgeons and the College of Nurses of Ontario to make sure that individuals who have applied and asked for licences in the province of Ontario get those assessments done quickly.

We are acting; you are fearmongering.

In fact, Speaker, we are. We have the OMA here today. We have family physicians who are offering flu shots to their patients. We have public health units that are putting on clinics. We have local pharmacies that have historically offered flu shots in the province of Ontario and continue to do so. There are many different pathways for individuals who wish to get their flu shot, and I would strongly encourage they do so, to get it depending on what is convenient for them in their community.

Speaker, in fact, earlier today, I was at a pharmaceutical distribution centre that has been tasked with distributing flu vaccines in the province of Ontario and was assured that almost all of them are out in pharmacies, in family physicians’ offices, in public health units.

We have invested and ensured that in the province of Ontario we have sufficient supplies of flu vaccines. It is now out in community, and I would encourage everyone who has the opportunity to go and get their flu shot as soon as possible.