Ma question est pour la ministre de la Santé.

Every question period in this Parliament, the official opposition has brought the story of struggling Ontarians: people who waited hours in the emergency room in pain, people who had to leave the hospital without getting the care they needed, people who have waited in agony for urgent surgery. All this because of staff shortages, being made worse every day by this government’s actions.

Why is this government willing to make the waiting worse by expanding private surgical clinics, siphoning more of our staff away from public hospitals?

Why is this government so determined to let this crisis go on and tell us that the only way out is to privatize more of our health care system?

Will the government stop selling more of our health care system to private investors and bring in a staffing strategy that will improve publicly delivered health care?

I am proud of the fact that our five-point plan that we announced last month with the Minister of Long-Term Care has already started to bear fruit. We’ve seen that with a willingness and, frankly, excitement from both the College of Nurses and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario where they are going to expedite. And they’ve brought forward additional ideas on how we can get those internationally educated health care workers here, working in Ontario. We’re doing that because we know we want to have the best health care system in the province of Ontario. We’re doing that by working with our hospital partners, our nursing partners, our paramedics.

You talk about individual situations. We’re actually coming up with ideas. We’re listening to the experts in the field, and we’re acting on those ideas.

It is 739,000 nursing visits. It is 157,000 nursing shift hours. It is 117,000 therapy visits, including physiotherapy, occupational therapy and speech-language pathology in community. It is 2,118,000 hours of personal support services in community and 236,000 other types of home care visits. It is precisely why we, as a government, have made that investment of $1 billion in community care programs in the province of Ontario.

It is, frankly, disappointing that the member opposite does not see the value of that and did not support it.

My question is to the Premier. Good morning, Premier. You should know that I received an upsetting call regarding a 90-year-old woman in my riding. She’d been living independently at her home, receiving home care three times a week. She recently spent a short while in hospital. When she was discharged, the LHIN and the hospital signed off on her care plan, which was to include home care. When she returned back home, alone, she was informed that it would be at least three weeks just for her to be assessed and that there was no home care available for her. She felt abandoned and frightened, as we all would.

Why is this government punishing our seniors instead of fixing the health care crisis?

When will this government fix our public home care system and stop—please stop—turning your backs on seniors?

The member opposite highlights exactly why we have been investing and will continue to invest in our health care system.

To be clear, nine out of 10 high-urgency patients finish their emergency visits within target times, and surgeries are happening at 88% of their pre-pandemic rate.

We’ve already added 3,500 hospital beds. We’ve already added 10,900 new hospital HHR—nurses, PSWs, doctors. We’ll continue to do this work, because we understand that we want to make sure that we have a robust health care system in the province of Ontario—and, most importantly, where people want to be, whether that is needed hospital and acute care during an acute-care crisis, whether that is recovering in their own home, whether that is in a rehab bed in a facility or, indeed, a long-term-care bed. We are doing this work. We are making these investments because we understand it is needed in the province of Ontario to deal with our aging population.

I’ve often spoken about 49 pilot projects that are currently happening in communities across Ontario—911-models-of-care pilot projects, which have borne amazing proof. Indeed, in London-Middlesex we have a success rate of 84% and a satisfaction rate of over 80% where individuals who are able to be cared for by their community paramedics in their community appreciated and understood that this was the most important and the most valuable role they could play.

We’re going to continue to do that work. We’re going to expand those models of care that are working in our community to make sure that every community has an opportunity to fully utilize their paramedics, because, frankly, sir, they have been making a huge difference in our communities.

My question is to the Premier.

Speaker, this government has established a pattern of leaving Ontarians in the dark about their plans. This time, they’ve left us in the dark about the grave implications of Bill 7. Ontarians were rightly horrified by how quickly and undemocratically Bill 7 was passed, but the minister tried to pacify us by saying that our concerns about how far people will be separated from their families against their will would be addressed through regulations.

Well, there has been no word about these regulations, but we’re already hearing stories about hospitals putting pressure on patients.

We don’t need to create obstacles for elderly and disabled people to see their loved ones and their valued caregivers.

Will the minister confirm that people will have regular and equitable access to their caregivers and their loved ones?

Speaker, this government refuses to commit to accountability and transparency. They passed Bill 7 without so much as a meeting with unions and front-line workers. They won’t listen to advocates, patients or their families. They’re only concerned about what works for hospital CEOs. The minister denied Ontarians a chance to advocate for themselves and their loved ones through public hearings.

My question is pretty easy: Will the minister deny Ontarians their rightful opportunity to comment on regulations during the public comment period before the regulations are implemented?

Of course, Mr. Speaker, I’ve been saying that right from the beginning—that the whole point of this was to ensure that those seniors who are in a hospital, who are imminently to be discharged, have a better quality of care than sitting in a hospital bed, where, everybody would acknowledge, medical professionals completely acknowledge, they are susceptible to various forms of different diseases which are not good for them. They don’t get the social activity that they require. They don’t get the physical activity that they require. They don’t get the mental stimulation that is required. A hospital bed is the absolute worst place for somebody to be.

If the member had read the bill, he would understand that not only are we doing this—making sure that our seniors have the right care in the right place at the right time—but we’re also putting money behind that to make sure that when a senior is leaving hospital for a long-term-care home, the long-term-care home has the services that are required, whether it’s kidney dialysis, whether it is behavioural support services. We are upgrading those services, as well, to match the patient leaving the hospital, becoming a resident at a home.

What the bill does—he read the bill, but yet he continues to say, “Oh, people are going to be charged $1,800 a day. They’re going to be sent a thousand miles from their home.” All incorrect—but he memorized the bill, colleagues. This is the same member who said we’re going to reopen three- and four-bed wardrooms. It was actually this Premier and that minister who closed those three- and four-bed wardrooms. It is that Premier and that minister who brought 58,000 new and upgraded beds—