I have a number of visitors to introduce today, so please bear with me.

First, I would like to welcome, from Punjab, India, Dr. Gurbir Singh Gill, who’s well known for his contributions and efforts in demonstrating the importance of making health care accessible to all. His dedication and hard work in improving the health care system in Punjab, India, has resulted in him perfecting a groundbreaking technique in cardiology that has already positively impacted the lives of his patients and set a precedent for future generations in the medical field. Dr. Gill has successfully performed—and treated over 21,000 patients without the use of stents. He has been recognized for his contributions and achievements by the health minister of Punjab and has received the international health care award for the year 2022.

I would like to welcome Dr. Gill to the Legislature here today.

That’s the exact reason we have to move the patients into long-term care: because of the staffing crisis, because of the backlogged surgeries, because of the long waits in the emergency departments. That’s the exact reason.

Mr. Speaker, there isn’t a CEO of any hospital that has disagreed. As a matter of fact, I got a message from a CEO this morning: “Thank you so much for making this move.” They’re sending me messages non-stop.

This is about taking care of the public, taking care of seniors; making sure that we reduce the wait times when they go into the emergency room; making sure we get rid of the backlog when it comes to surgeries. That’s the reason we’re doing it, Mr. Speaker.

We’re going to continue building on the success that we’ve seen by putting additions and building brand new hospitals in over 50 areas. There’s going to be 50 new hospitals, or with additions on top of that, spending over $40 billion.

There’s no government in the history—not of just Ontario, of Canada—that has put more money into the health care system than this government has.

I think the member opposite is losing track of the fact that we have patients who are sitting in hospital beds who need to be better served in community. That can, in some cases, be in a long-term-care home, and I want to reinforce that Bill 7 ensures that the individual, even if they are moved into a long-term-care facility, will still have their priority list of five there, so that when a bed is available in the long-term-care facility of their choice, they will have that opportunity.

I have to remind people that hospitals are not homes. We need to ensure that people have the ability to live out their lives in community, in long-term-care homes, where there is social programming and where there are opportunities for enhancement, which is, of course, not what is available in hospitals.

The government is rushing the passing of Bill 7—not allowing the government to hear the concerns of Ontarians because there will be no public hearings. We understand that hospitals are under enormous pressure and that we need to find measures of support and relief, but moving patients out of ALC into inappropriate long-term-care facilities is displacing the issue, not solving it. The Premier himself said yesterday that patients deserve proper care, so why not invest in more home care?

The bill does not contain details regarding the implementation, and not knowing how far this government will go to free beds in hospitals really worries families.

My question is, how will the government ensure that patients’ rights to consent to proper care will be guaranteed?

Les gens sont inquiets, car le projet de loi ne donne aucune assurance que le consentement, la volonté et les besoins des patients et des familles seront respectés. Selon la loi, le patient doit être libre de consentir au traitement ou de le refuser. Le consentement doit être obtenu sans contrainte, ni coercition.

Est-ce que le ministre peut garantir aux Ontariens que la réglementation de mise en oeuvre du projet de loi 7 va respecter leur droit de consentir librement aux soins?

Speaker, the member suggests that this is something new. But look, we have a report dating back to 2011 that was commissioned by the former Liberal government where their own commissioner begged them to do something about ALC and to work with long-term care in order to make that happen. This is dating back to 2011.

We then have a further report from the Auditor General in 2012 which highlighted the dangers of having our seniors in hospital who should be transitioned into long-term care. In addition to the potential for C. difficile, they talked about older patients’ decline in physical and mental abilities due to lack of activity as being one of the dangers.

That’s what this bill fixes. It allows us to work with long-term-care homes, it allows us to work with the patient who wants to become a resident, see what services are available in the homes around their choice, and if their choice is not available, they stay at the top of the priority list for their home of choice, but at the same time get better care in the home while they wait for that.

What we’re able to do is, we’re opening up 500 spaces for respite care. I’ve talked about how important that is, and I hope all members would agree that that’s important. We’re able to bring on 1,000 beds that have been set aside for isolation purposes—1,000 of the 2,000—and put them back into service, so that people can have access to those beds.

We’re able to work with long-term-care homes and the patients: “What is your preferred choice? Is it available? If it’s not, what homes in and around your preferred choice are available? Will that home work for you? If it doesn’t, what do we need to do to make it work for you? Do we need to put in kidney dialysis? Do we need behavioural supports for you, or specialized nursing for you?” This bill allows us to do that.

The regulations that I introduced a couple of days ago eliminate ward rooms. It reiterates the fact that there are no more ward rooms. We talked about the $60 million going forward. It’s better for patients, and we won’t stop—