Last week, the member for London North Centre and I met with RNAO’s Middlesex-Elgin chapter, and we listened to the nurses who attended that meeting. These were nurses who worked in home care, long-term care. They worked in emergency and pediatric emergency. They worked in the ICU. They worked offloading patients from ambulances. They worked in public health. It was a mix of experienced nurses, student nurses, nurse educators. They told us that they are exhausted, they are burned-out, they are done, and they have no faith that anything the government is going to do will help make a difference. They saw the growth of hallway medicine under the Liberals, and they have seen the weaponization of Bill 124, legislation that directly targets a predominantly female workforce and tells health care workers, tells nurses, that this government does not value them, does not respect them and does not care about the demoralization they feel after almost three years of a pandemic and the workload pressures, the stress and the violence that they face every day on their job.

Speaker, I hear daily from Londoners who contact my office who can’t find a family doctor, whose routine screening tests were cancelled, whose surgeries were postponed. I hear from worried parents who are reaching out to my office, asking me what is going to happen if their child becomes seriously ill and they have to take that child to a children’s hospital in London where there are waits of hours—hours-long—with a desperately ill child. Imagine how you would feel as a parent, knowing that if that child had to be admitted to an ICU bed and they’re over 14 years of age, it may be to an adult ICU bed or it may be to an ICU bed in another community altogether.

Speaker, we have heard the Minister of Health say that this surge was expected, that the overwhelming of pediatric emergency rooms is not a surprise to this government, that the number of children being ventilated is nothing to worry about, that they have a plan, and that plan, this government claims, is so good that no additional resources or measures were necessary in the fall economic statement.

We just heard the parliamentary assistant talk about the recruitment programs that this government has put in place. But I have news for this government: Investing public dollars to recruit workers who don’t stay in the health care profession won’t do a thing to shore up the health care workforce.

What we need to do is compensate them fairly. We need to improve their working conditions. We need to support them with appropriate mentorship programs, training programs, other programs. We need to repeal Bill 124. These are the measures that would really make a difference.

I call on this government to support the motion before us today, to consult with unions and health sector stakeholders to develop a multi-layer health care worker recruitment and retention incentive package that includes short-, medium- and long-term solutions. We need to do everything possible to recruit, retain and return health care workers.

They’re asking me where I was. Well, I wasn’t elected then, so I couldn’t make a change. But you could have, sir. You could have made a change, and you did nothing.

If the members opposite truly wanted to improve access to primary care at that time or at any time, they could have made it a condition of their support. Yet they chose not to do that.

The former Premier admitted to freezing hospital spending for years and, in 2015, eliminated 50 medical residency positions from Ontario. They defended their decision to eliminate the 50 positions, when 800,000 Ontarians were without a family doctor, by saying they were, “scaling back to make better use of scarce health care dollars.”

This reduction came in the same year that 250 nurses would be laid off from hospitals in communities across the province, including Newmarket, Sarnia and London. If the members opposite were committed to improving our health care system, they could have done it then, and yet they did nothing.

Madam Speaker, I get tired of listening to some of the complaining going on. I get tired of listening to people trying to make a crisis and make fear in the population at a time of pandemic even worse by using words and expressions like “the worst crisis in generations” and “oh my God, the government is going to privatize,” trying to scare people. I think it’s irresponsible to be talking like that at a time when the health care system is of course under strain.

The interim leader for the NDP said that the reasons for the crisis are not mysterious. And the first two he listed, I agree. People worked hard before the pandemic in our health care system, and they worked very hard throughout the pandemic. That is true. That is why we continue to work to improve the system and pay them back.

But let’s remember that these waits in emergency rooms for health care have been going on for many, many years. I personally have waited—what was the example given, 14 hours and 20 hours? Is that normal? No, it’s not normal, but I have personally waited that long over 10 years ago with my parents in the emergency departments. So that is not new, unfortunately, in Ontario. That is why this government is taking steps to address it.

At the same time, in 2019, before the pandemic arose—November 2019, as I recall—emergency rooms were being closed in Nova Scotia. I remember the story on the national news. It said there’s a sign on the door in the emergency department of this town in Nova Scotia: “Don’t go to this emergency room because no one is here. Drive to the next town.” That is not a new issue. It was a pre–pandemic issue, and it’s a staffing challenge.

Why do we have a staffing challenge? The members opposite are correct. There is some pressure in our staffing, but let’s talk about that. It’s not a funding issue. It is a staffing issue because there are not enough health human resources—

I just went through a lot of things we’re doing to fix that problem, but let’s just talk about this for a second. Part of the reason that we need so many new staff is because we have so many more jobs for them, because we’re trying to hire more, right? We’re trying to hire 27,000 new PSWs and nurses for our long-term-care homes. That will make more jobs available. So, yes, there are more vacancies. And we’re trying to hire nurses. We’ve just added—

Interjections.

Somebody over there said, “We’ve never seen anything like this before”—

Interjection.

That’s a funding issue.

Opposition, come to order please.

Further debate?

I usually get up and say I’m happy to rise to speak in this House, but this is a subject that hits close to my heart because I’m married to someone back home who is one of those health care professionals at CHEO dealing with kids who are struggling to breathe—struggling to breathe. This is Canada—struggling to breathe.

We have flu season every year. We don’t have seven kids over a weekend having to be resuscitated. We don’t have little kids like the one I talked about this morning, Chloe, fighting to breathe—fighting to breathe, and our friends in government are saying, “Crisis? What crisis? There is nothing happening here to be concerned about. We’re giving the system more money than we ever have before.” Chloe’s fine. My partner working her tail off back at CHEO is fine. Everything’s great. Shouldn’t we applaud them for how innovative they’re being in this moment?

I just want to appeal to the hearts of the government members opposite and ask them to truly consider the gravity and ethical implications of making comments like that, because it is one thing to ask first responders and health care workers to sacrifice, which is what they signed up to do every single day—it’s one thing to do that, but it’s another thing to tell us a story about how there’s no significant problem here and how we’re investing more money than ever before and we’re just fantastic, because it doesn’t correspond to the reality of the nurse or the doctor or the orderly or the custodian holding the hand of the mom with the breathing tube in the kid’s face. There is a disconnect. I want my friends in government to understand that disconnect. It hurts.

What also hurts is when they see government in July give 44 members of this government caucus a parliamentary assistantship—the greatest percentage of parliamentary assistantships in Ontario history. That’s a $16,000 raise while you’re giving 1% to people in hospitals keeping kids alive, a $16,000 raise while you’re telling people that you’re doing the best you can and it’s the best it has ever been.

I just want to appeal, through you, Speaker, to the government to acknowledge that we are in the middle of an unprecedented crisis. I asked the Premier this morning to lead by example and wear a mask in this place. The Premier would not stand and answer my question. He deserves the opportunity to honour the office he holds for the province of Ontario, to wear a mask and to actually be on the ground in communities across this province, repealing Bill 124 and the other legislation which is not only hurting health care workers but it’s insulting their everyday reality.

Stop the insult. Fund the health care that we need. Fix it right now.

I think you’ve heard loud and clear from all my colleagues during our oppo day where the needs are and where the answers are also located. There are many answers that have been provided to this government, many suggestions that have been provided to this government.

This government continues to force hospitals and long-term-care homes to use agency nurses, which are three times the cost of what we know would work effectively. Give that opportunity for individuals to return to the workforce, to return under good working conditions: Repeal Bill 124 to remove those conditions that are there, but add 10 paid sick days so individuals can go back to work without any worries and care for the people who they work with, but also stay at home when they need to stay at home.

This government has created a self-imposed crisis. We ask ourselves, “Why did they create this crisis?” The simple answer to it is to accept them doing an action. What is that action? A lot of it comes down to privatization of those services. This government can stand in their place and deny it, but you can see it happening in all of the communities. It’s apparent this is your path. It’s in your DNA. There’s no changing it, and you cannot continually stand in this House and continue to deny that.

In Algoma–Manitoulin, a lot of the hospitals are operating their ER departments. Why? Because they have locums. We’re paying high fees for those locums to make sure that our ER—thank goodness that we have the ability, but that’s not the answer, because primary care is being set aside. Patients in their communities are not getting the care that they need. There are nurses—we had an excellent breakfast this morning with registered nurses who have the answers for this government. You need to sit with them, listen, provide them with the opportunity to expand their services. That’s part of the answer.

Further debate? Further debate?

The member for Nickel Belt.

All those in favour of the motion, please say “aye.”

Those opposed to the motion, please say “nay.”

In my opinion, the nays have it.

Call in the members. There will be a 10-minute bell.

The division bells rang from 1436 to 1446.

Madame Gélinas has moved opposition day number 2. All those in favour of the motion will rise one at a time and be recognized by the Clerk.

Motion negatived.

Report continues in volume B.

Thank you, Speaker. I will be using my right of reply to the motion.

It was an interesting afternoon, where a lot of real-life stories that highlight the crisis in our health care system have been shared. There is a health human resources crisis in health care. Health care happens between two people. When the people who provide the care are burnt-out, when the people who provide the care feel demoralized and disrespected and just cannot continue to do their jobs anymore—jobs that they love, jobs that they are good at, jobs that they trained to do and want to do, but the circumstances in their workplace right now, whether it be in hospital, in long-term care, in home care, in primary care are such that they can’t take it anymore—we need to act.

We cannot continue to let this happen the way it is. How can anybody sit in their seat when you know that SickKids and CHEO—those are pediatric hospitals that are world-renowned. They provide the best children’s care. People come from all over to see what we do right here in Ontario. When we hear that their ICU is full, at 130% capacity, when we hear that there are little ones in every single ICU bed and bassinet and crib and there are no more ways to care for them, how come some people can stay there and say, “All is good. We have recruited 12,000 new workers”?

You don’t look at attrition. What is happening right now in Ontario is a mass exodus of health care workers who are afraid for their licence, who are afraid for their mental health, who are afraid for their own health, and who just give up. They would love to come back. In order for that to happen, we need to acknowledge what they have gone through.

We need to acknowledge that things were not good before. You’re absolutely right that there have been hospitals full, at 120% capacity, for years. There have been people admitted into TV rooms, lounges, ends of hallways, everywhere. There is a huge patient room in the basement of my hospital, next to the morgue, where eight people lay without a window, without a bathroom. We are full, over capacity—yes, our hospitals are—but don’t just sit there and say, “We’ve recruited 12,000 more,” because the exodus is there. Go on the website of any hospital in Ontario, go on the website of any long-term care, and you will see vacancies, 42,000 of them, right here, right now, as we speak, where there is nobody applying for those jobs.

And some of the programs that the government has put forward—yes, they took the training, they went and worked as PSWs, and four weeks later, half of them had given up on that job, because it was just too hard, too difficult for what they were getting out of it. They still could not pay the rent and feed their kids with the work that they were doing as a PSW.

What we’re asking through this motion is really a multi-layer approach that looks at how we solve the health human resources crisis. How do we bring people back? How do we respect them for the hard work, the important work that they do? This is what this motion is all about. We had nurse practitioners, who are here today, going into the different offices. They are telling you, right here, right now, that there are nurse practitioners underemployed right here in Ontario. Each and every one of them, if you were to fund the position in any nurse practitioner-led clinic, they would take on 800 patients that are unattached. You could do this right here, right now this afternoon.

But no, none of that is happening. They have recruited 12,000 new health care professionals. It doesn’t matter that there are 42 vacancies. It doesn’t matter that the exodus is continuing. We see a government that is very reluctant to act, and like everybody else, you have to wonder, “Why is that?” Well, the “Why is that?” is because they will come out with a solution of privatization. They’re not proud of it. They hide it. They don’t say it. But they do it.

Repeal Bill 124. Treat people with respect and you will be amazed what Ontario health care workers will do.

The ayes are 28; the nays are 74.