Mr. Speaker, the only ones saying no, really, are the opposition. We are saying yes to improving the health care system. We’ve been doing that since day one.

It’s about building an integrated system. That’s why we started with Ontario health teams. We’ve grown the system. We’ve added new nurses. We’ve added 58,000 new and upgraded long-term-care beds, 27,000 additional health care workers in long-term care alone. We’re adding new medical schools in Toronto. We’re expanding in Brampton and, of course, in Durham, Speaker.

But ultimately, what Bill 7 is about, and what the opposition refuses to acknowledge, is that when somebody is being discharged from a hospital, somebody who is already on the long-term-care wait-list—these are people who want to be in a long-term-care home—experts, doctors and medical professionals all will agree that the best place for somebody to get that care is in a long-term-care home. I’m going to continue, as all of us will on this side and Conservatives on that side of the House, to fight for those seniors who want to be in long-term care and who want better care.

To the nurses like Tara: Thank you. Thank you for your commitment. Thank you for being there when the people of Ontario needed you, through the pandemic.

It’s so important that we acknowledge the excellent work that nurses have done, which is, frankly, one of the reasons why we brought forward the $5,000 nurse retention. The second Toronto course is coming forward in the weeks ahead, in the first couple of weeks in September.

We’re also expanding the supply and opportunities for people who wish to train as nurses in the province of Ontario, because we understand that there are so many opportunities with additional long-term-care beds being built, with 50 new hospital expansions in the works. We need more health human resources, and it is why we’ve invested $35 million to increase enrolment in nursing education programs in colleges and universities. The new spaces will introduce over 1,100 practical nurses and 870 registered nurses into Ontario’s health care system.

We will continue to work with the College of Nurses of Ontario. We will continue to work to make sure that internationally educated health care workers who want to practise in the province of Ontario get their licence quickly through those colleges. And that work can be ongoing, because I think you and I can both agree that we want more people working in our health care system in Ontario.

Ma question est pour le premier ministre.

On Thursday, August 25, Kashechewan First Nation, a population of 1,900, published a news release about a severe shortage of primary care nurses at their nursing station. This is a critical situation, as only three nurses are available—now down to two—when usually they are staffed at nine. The health director, Jonathan Solomon, is worried about the well-being of the nursing staff as well. This has been the case for the past four weeks, leaving a skeleton crew giving “emergency only” services. The health and well-being of the community is at risk. Primary care for their residents is not being met, and they have no other medical facilities. This nursing station is their lifeline.

Will the government work with the First Nations and Inuit Health Branch of Indigenous Services Canada to put together a better recruitment plan for nurses so that the community of Kashechewan never has to address another health care crisis for lack of nurses?

Nurses and health care staff have been underpaid and undervalued by the Conservative government. Tara is a local community nurse in Sudbury with three decades of experience. You simply can’t replicate the experience and knowledge of lifelong nurses like Tara. She brings this invaluable experience to her workplace, to her patients and to her colleagues, but Tara is quitting, and so are many other senior nurses she knows. I asked Tara why, and she said, “Our out-of-pocket expenses always increase, but our mileage and wages” don’t “keep pace.”

Right now in Sudbury, there are more than 150 job postings for nurses. With that many vacancies, clearly the Premier’s plan to retain nurses is not working.

To the Premier: When will the Premier admit that lifelong nurses like Tara are leaving the profession because they have not been sufficiently supported and valued by this government?

Nurses and health care staff have been underpaid and undervalued by the Conservative government.

Jan works in a local long-term-care home and is concerned about the recent increase in staffing agency contract nurses. Jan told me that contract nurses can make up to $150 an hour more than she does. As a result, nursing home budgets are being obliterated by these costs, and this ends up forcing even more cuts to front-line staff. What’s more, most of these temp agencies require their nurses to sign a contract that prevents them from being hired as full-time workers in the agencies where they provide these services.

To the Premier: With little to no oversight, staffing agencies are slowly draining the nursing pool and money intended for patient care. What is the Premier doing to stop these agencies from taking advantage and profiteering from the COVID pandemic and our current health care crisis?

Thank you to the member for the question.

As we work to create a strong health care system, we are relying on strong health human resources as well. That’s why we are taking strong measures, specifically in my ministry, to ensure that we are training more doctors and nurses.

For example, the Learn and Stay program will pay for all educational components of a nurse’s education—in order to qualify, and to commit to two years in an underserved area. This will be starting in 2023. This will allow up to 3,000 nurses as part of this program, so it’s a great opportunity for young people to serve in some of those underserved, rural, northern areas.

As well, we’ve now allowed colleges across Ontario to offer stand-alone programs in nursing. Fourteen colleges now offer this program in areas like my own—in Georgian College, Lambton College, Loyalist—great opportunities for young people to be entering into rewarding careers, where we know we need more nurses.

As I mentioned, we have so many opportunities for young people to join the nursing profession. We are offering opportunities for students as well as opportunities for bridging in some of the work that I’ve been doing with the Minister of Long-Term Care, where we’ve invested over $100 million to support students who are moving from being a PSW to a registered practical nurse to a registered nurse, all while working in these careers while we need them in the workforce.

We’re offering opportunities for young people in their own communities—as I mentioned, the opportunity for students to learn in a college and to complete their four-year degree there, close to home. These are opportunities—I know in my own area, where students were at one time leaving to go to a university to finish their two-year degree, usually in a city, and not coming back to our rural communities. So there are great opportunities for colleges across Ontario to accept students, to be able to offer the nursing degree programs.

Nursing shortages continue to plague Ottawa hospitals. The Queensway Carleton Hospital in my riding of Ottawa West–Nepean has had to close ICU beds due to lack of nurses.

Nurses without specialized experience are being assigned to work serious cases in the ICU or trauma cases in the ER. In at least one case, a nurse with only a few months’ experience was put in charge of an entire unit overnight, by herself. Speaker, this is unsustainable and risky. Why is the Premier refusing to repeal Bill 124 and address nursing shortages?

Recently, I met with the nurses of ONA Local 84 who work at the Queensway Carleton Hospital. They are burnt-out and frequently left in tears over assignments that they do not feel qualified to take on.

There are nurses who are quitting and working minimum wage jobs in retail because at least it doesn’t have the stress of nursing.

Will the Premier finally listen to nurses, address working conditions, and repeal Bill 124?

And I appreciate that the member for Niagara Falls is finally reading the bill.

But did they do anything? No.

And now, somehow, they come here, when you have a government that has from day one made enormous investments in health care—we’ve talked about it: a new hospital in Brampton, new hospitals in Niagara. The largest hospital expansion, I think, in Canadian history is in Mississauga. The largest expansion of long-term care in Canadian history—province of Ontario. The largest investment in health care for Ottawa is happening under our government right now. That’s what’s happening in the province of Ontario. We’re hiring thousands of nurses, thousands of PSWs, hundreds of doctors.

They talk about—and I heard the member from Scarborough Southwest talk about, “We’ve got foreign-trained doctors and medical professionals.” Well, we’re actually doing that. We’re doing it, Madam Speaker. It could have been done, but it wasn’t done.

Now, I want to talk—the opposition House leader asked me a question about respite care. She said, “Well, are you going to bring back respite care as part of this?” Well, yes, of course we are. It was part of the news conference.

They say, “You’re going to move people hundreds of miles away.” The announcement talked about what we hoped to accomplish with this program. Yes, there are almost 6,000 people in hospital who should not be there. There are about 2,000 of them who are waiting to be in long-term-care homes, who have applied and want to be in long-term-care homes.

Are there some that should be in home care or would rather home care? Absolutely. Of course there are. That’s why we’re spending $1 billion to improve the system. That’s why I wish they would have voted for it and not against it. They’re going to have another opportunity, though. They voted against the throne speech, but very soon, colleagues, they’re going to get one more chance to vote for home care, a $1-billion investment, and we’ll see how that goes.

The member from London talked about respite care. Colleagues, I’ve talked about this before, when I first spoke. This is the program where you have a loved one and you’re taking care of the loved one at your home. More often than not, it’s an elderly couple: a husband who’s taking care of his spouse and he doesn’t want or she doesn’t want them to be in a long-term-care home, but they need a break. They just need a break. It happens, right? It happens.

The option they have available to them right now is the hospital. That’s the only option they have available to them: the hospital. This bill changes that. This bill reopens the respite care program in the province of Ontario, making available space for about 500 people who are in the hospital right now as ALC patients to come out of that, where they’re not being taken care of, and to get the respite care.

The member from London asked for that to be done. We were already doing it, but the members of the NDP say, “Well, despite the fact that you’re doing it, we can’t vote for it.”

It also said that ward beds, three- and four-bed—and why do I bring up the ward beds, the three- and four-bed rooms? It’s because the member for Niagara Falls, in his speech, talked about how—not even in his speech, in his public Twitter feed—says that we are going to move people into three- and four-bed ward rooms. Now, forget the fact that you can’t do that, but the member spoke about it—

So I’m glad that the member for London screams out that it’s not in the bill. But then I remind the member for London that nor is a $1,500-a-day charge in the bill, nor is sending people 300 kilometres away in the bill, nor is sending somebody 100 kilometres away in the bill.

What the bill ostensibly, though, is about—which they don’t want to talk about, because the NDP and the Liberals together, whether in coalition or separately, like to see chaos, right? They don’t like to see things actually accomplished. It’s not in their interests to do it. It’s about protecting the status quo.

You’ve heard about this a lot. We talk about the status quo a lot. That’s really the essence of the opposition: They are the party of the status quo. That’s what they are. Forget the fact that, to be clear, it was a Progressive Conservative government that brought in socialized medicine in the province of Ontario in the first place, right? It was a Progressive Conservative government that did that.