I’m thankful to rise and speak to Bill 7 today. Let me say this clearly: Bill 7 is one of the worst and most cruel bills I’ve ever seen before this Legislature. Despite what the part-time Minister of Long-Term Care keeps saying to try to cover the true intent of this bill—I’m going to begin by reading a section of this bill directly: “The actions listed ... may only be performed without consent if reasonable efforts have been made to obtain the consent of the ALC patient or their substitute decision-maker.”

So there you have it: Action can be taken without consent, Madam Speaker. The weasel words that are in it are what is considered reasonable efforts and who defines it. Honestly, this government has dropped even outwardly denying the fact that they’ll be moving people without their consent. They wanted to deny that reality, and now they’re moving on to simply saying our hospitals are over capacity and they need to move people. Tough luck, seniors and those with disabilities; you’re moving somewhere you probably don’t want to be, away from your community and your family—their solution. Those are cruel actions by this government. And the reality is, Madam Speaker, some will give up and they’ll die early. They are taking our loved ones who are sitting in hospitals waiting for care and they’re going to rip them away from the health care staff they know and their loved ones, from their families, and they’re going to ship them to long-term-care homes without their consent, mainly going to for-profit homes where the openings are, where people don’t want to go.

The minister is smiling right now. There’s nothing to smile about.

Going back to Christmas, in a place called Oakwood Park Lodge and Millennium Trail Manor, 60 of our seniors died over Christmas—60. Do you know why they died? Lack of staff. Lack of PPE. There’s nothing funny about it. Christmas Eve, they were calling my house and we were talking to the family as they were crying. Every one of those deaths could have been prevented.

So when you smile when people are dying—and if you take a look at AC. Can you imagine being in a long-term-care facility tomorrow or yesterday and how hot it was, and they’re sitting there with no AC? Last night at the Jays game, they wouldn’t open the roof because it was too hot, because they wanted the air conditioning in the ball park, yet our seniors are living without air conditioning. It’s absolutely disgusting.

I think we all know in the House what happens in many of these homes during a pandemic. Close to 5,000 people have died in long-term care in this province during COVID—close to 5,000; 40 of them died just in the last two weeks. Private homes have the worst record for long-term-care deaths.

I ask my colleagues on this side, the Liberals, independents, the PCs: Do you guys not have parents? Do you not have grandparents? Aunts and uncles who are going to these long-term-care facilities with a lack of staff? The quality of food is not good. A lack of PPE. Did any of you guys have anybody die? I raised it the last time I talked. I had my father-in-law and my mother-in-law die in these facilities. How do you guys sleep at night? Because I’m telling you, I don’t.

Speaker, we literally have had our military come into long-term-care homes to sort out the mess from years of underfunding, neglect, corporate greed and quite frankly, the privatization that was started under the Conservative government of Mike Harris. That’s when it started. The military—not Wayne Gates, not the Ontario Federation of Labour or the health coalition—found absolutely disgusting things in those homes. They documented seniors dying because of dehydration—the basic need of water that we have our pages come and give to us all the time. All we have to do is put our hand up and our page will come and give us water, but if you’re in a long-term-care facility, according to the military, not Wayne Gates, they couldn’t get that in a long-term-care for-profit home.

Do you know what the result was, Madam Speaker? And I appreciate you looking at me. They died. They died because of dehydration in the richest province in the country. How does that happen? I don’t understand it.

The record stated that people died simply because of lack of staff. They needed water and assistance for cleaning, and our loved ones died because of it. Moms, dads, grandparents, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law—whoever they are.

It’s so disturbing to think that seniors and those with disabilities may be forced into a private home without consent. The government has gone out of their way to play down the reality of this bill. They have gone as far as suggesting these changes are just simply conversations with ALC patients to request they reconsider the homes they may choose to go to.

But then one must ask, what changes here? Hospital administrators today have always had the ability to try and use reasonable effort to move ALC patients to a long-term-care home. There is nothing new. No, instead, this government intends to use one of the particularly powerful tools of persuasion: financial ruin.

I don’t know anybody—I shouldn’t say I don’t know anybody, but I know there are a lot of people that won’t be able to afford what they’re going to be asked to pay if they want to stay in a hospital. You see, if you are in a hospital waiting for long-term care, then your stay is covered by OHIP. We all know what OHIP is. We all have OHIP in this room. The system built by Tommy Douglas that says no one should have to be bankrupt trying to get medical care is still the cornerstone of our system here in Ontario. But, this government, through this bill, thinks it’s okay for seniors and people with disabilities to be charged $500 to $1,500 per day to stay in these beds. That’s what this government is doing to seniors. They’re saying that if you try to fight it, they may charge you and then move you without your consent. It’s in the bill. I was asked about the bill. The bill’s right here; I can hold it up. I’ve read it a number of times.

This comes back to: What are we debating here today? They aren’t just numbers on a sheet. These are real humans—moms, dads, parents, brothers, sisters. I’ve spoken directly with these people. I know them. They live in my community. They’re our neighbours. If you have a loved one in a hospital right now waiting for LTC, you will be terrified. I don’t know how the families can sleep at night knowing what this government is going to do to the seniors of this province. I’m going to frank: I don’t even know how my fellow MPPs can sleep at night passing a bill like this, particularly knowing—I hope I’m wrong, but I don’t think I will be—that these seniors that we move out of the hospital are going to die, and they’re going to die a lot sooner than they had to. It makes no sense.

I’m dealing with a family right now in my riding. He’s 84; he’s sick. She’s 84. They’re trying to get him into a place that’s close so that she can walk and go take care of her husband. They’ve been married for 60 years. That’s what we have to continue to protect. Shipping people 30—I don’t even know what the kilometres are going to be; they haven’t told us exactly what they are, but the rumors are out there: 30 kilometres, 100 kilometres, 300 kilometres away from your family. I challenge anybody here—Speaker, I challenge anybody to tell me that if your mom or dad gets sick, do you not want to spend the time with them and make sure they’re getting the proper care? A lot of us know they don’t have transportation. Families won’t be able to go as often. I told the story about my wife; She was there every day, trying to keep her mom and dad alive.

What are we doing? I don’t get this, honestly. Please, don’t support this bill. This bill will make that reality far worse for many. We could have families completely separated between communities.

Somebody said to me the other day—and I’ve got only a minute and a half left—“Well, it’s only 30 kilometres.” Go talk to somebody in Fort Erie who’s going to have to maybe go to Grimsby, a 30-minute drive. We all remember what happened just in January this year: They closed their urgent care hospital, and the community was saying, “What are we doing? We’re a senior community. We can’t get to Niagara Falls.” How do you expect them to get to Grimsby to see their loved ones or whatever the distance is going to be.

It’s completely shameful that this government refuses to understand the real human impact it’s going to have. This bill will cause stress, and in some cases moving away from their family and community will cost lives. The people will never forget what you did to cause such pain. What makes this even worse—these wonderful residents, seniors, who built this province are being targeted by this government, and this government doesn’t seem to care about them.

We didn’t even have public hearings on this bill because this government is too scared to hear what experts, stakeholders and families are really talking about. I’ve got 24 seconds. Quite frankly, I don’t think you want to look the families that may separate in their eyes. They can’t handle the reality.

This bill is cruel, it’s awful, and I’m begging all of you, all my MPPs here, to vote this bill down.