I’d like to introduce Christopher Dopking. He’s the principal of Emmanuel Christian school in Madoc, Ontario, from my riding. Welcome.

The spirit of Uganda is in this House today, I’m excited to tell you, Speaker. The Kamengo Cultural Troupe arrived just moments ago. They are Chris Mutebi, Brian Muluuta, Pauline Nakamanya, Sharif Ssenkumba, Deo Kakande and their incredible manager, Jimmy Sebulime. In honour of Emancipation Month, they’re going to be performing in rooms 228 and 230 after question period. I invite all members to come.

Speaker, I want to thank you personally for your help and the help of the assembly protocol for helping our friends get here.

Happy Emancipation Month, everybody.

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.

It gives me great pleasure to recognize a significant anniversary coming up in two weeks for one of Canada’s oldest and storied regiments in the Canadian Armed Forces. Durham region’s own Ontario Regiment will celebrate its 156th anniversary on September 14, 2022, making Oshawa’s regiment among the oldest continuously serving reserve militia units in Canada and one of the most senior armoured regiments in the Royal Canadian Armoured Corps.

Having first originated in 1866 in Whitby, Ontario, as the 34th Ontario Battalion of Infantry then redesigned as the Ontario Regiment in 1900, the Ont Rs or “black cats” have heroically served Canadians and citizens of the world through various military campaigns.

The unit fought with distinction in several theatres during World War II, beginning with the Allied Invasion of Sicily in July 1943 through to the Italian campaign of the war, seeing action in the fierce Liri Valley and on to Ortona. Most notably, in 1945 the unit entered the northwest European theatre, where it fought with distinction in the Dutch campaign, winning honours at Arnhem.

Along with many battle honours, a significant number of the regiment’s soldiers have volunteered for active duty with NATO in Germany, United Nations missions in Cyprus and Bosnia, the Golan Heights, Cambodia, the former Yugoslavia and, most recently, the NATO-led engagement in Afghanistan.

I’m proud to offer congratulations to the unit’s Honorary Colonel Robert Chapman; Honorary Lieutenant Colonel Nancy Shaw; incoming Commanding Officer of the Ont Rs, Lieutenant Colonel Christian Caron; the officers and soldiers.

Faithful and Prepared—Fidelis et Paratus.

To the Premier: Yesterday, the government confirmed that they would be saying no to the front-line workers and families who say Bill 7 will be devastating for them.

Forcing seniors to pay steep fees and move hundreds of kilometres away from loved ones is not a solution to our health care crisis.

Will the government do the right thing, pull Bill 7, and start listening to the front-line workers and families who can give us the real solutions to the health care crisis?

I am now going to ask our legislative pages to assemble.

It is my pleasure and honour to introduce this group of legislative pages: from the riding of Wellington–Halton Hills, Prassan Aggarwal; from Toronto Centre, Ying Ying Chen; from Vaughan–Woodbridge, Liliana Commisso; from Don Valley West, Daniyal Elahi; from Hamilton Centre, Juliet Finley; from Etobicoke North, Malcolm Greene; from Mississauga–Malton, Zara Hameed; from Markham–Unionville, Evan Hu; from Beaches–East York, Sunder Looman; from Scarborough–Guildwood, Sharmin Nanabawa; from Spadina–Fort York, Arushi Nath; from Etobicoke–Lakeshore, Apollo Noronha; from Pickering–Uxbridge, Autumn Roberts; from Parkdale–High Park, Quaid Saitua-Rippell; from Don Valley North, Norah Symington; from Davenport, Lucas Yin; and from the riding of Thornhill, Sophie Shengyue Zhang.

Please join me in welcoming this group of legislative pages.

Applause.

I would very much like to welcome Sophie Shengyue Zhang, a new page here at the Legislature, from my riding of Thornhill. She is a student at Glen Shields Public School. Welcome, Sophie.

I’d like to welcome to the House Herbert Maguire and Leslie Thurston, who are Ontarians on disability; Rita DeBiasi, who worked 34 years as a PSW and now is on disability; and Meike Pfeffer, who is a social worker with Seeds of Hope, an organization which helps people experiencing homelessness in the city of Toronto. Welcome to the House.

I’d like to introduce my good friend Matt Richter from Parry Sound–Muskoka, who is in the members’ gallery. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

I’d like to welcome someone who is here today: a friend to many in the House, the remarkable, the talented Brian Patterson.

Good morning to everybody. I would like to welcome Sapan Jot, owner of Code Ninjas on the Queensway, and her family: Amay Garg, Ishav Garg and Trisha Kaura. Welcome to the Legislature. I hope you have a wonderful tour.

Since day one, since we were elected in 2018, we have put a focus on rebuilding the health care system that was so badly neglected by 15 years of Liberals and, for many of those years, by the NDP. We’ve put incredible resources. We are building out the health care system like no government has before: a new hospital in Brampton, new hospitals in Niagara and long-term-care homes in every part of the province, because we know that long-term care can be part of the solution to the acute care problems that we have.

We are hiring additional health care workers. We’re building new medical schools in the province of Ontario. I think the Minister of Colleges and Universities talked about the first new medical school in over 100 years—the largest investment of health care in the history of Mississauga. The only consistent that there has been is that the NDP have voted against every single initiative, Mr. Speaker. We’ll keep rebuilding the health care system because it’s important to the people of Ontario.

Despite the fact that we did that, they then voted against that funding. They voted against the 27,000 additional health care workers for long-term care. They voted against the four hours of care, Mr. Speaker.

We will work closely with patients in hospital who want to become residents of long-term care because we know that is better for them. It’s not me saying that; it’s health care professionals who are saying that. It’s even people who are in those homes.

Supplementary question.

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?

Again to the Premier: Later today, the Premier will be meeting with the Prime Minister. At a time when our health care crisis desperately needs an Ontario Premier to fight for health care, this Premier has been leading the charge for more privatization. That’s not a solution.

Will the Premier continue pushing his private health care agenda in his meeting with the Prime Minister?

Will the Premier show some leadership today, scrap Bill 7, scrap his privatization agenda and work on a national plan to expand public health care and address the crisis in our hospitals?

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.

To the Premier: At the recent Association of Municipalities of Ontario meeting, I heard the Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association delegation raise concerns about the proposal to cut Ontario’s health units from 35 to 10 and paramedic services from 55 to 10. The plan is to merge the Kenora, Rainy River and Thunder Bay districts under one health unit covering at least 220,000 square kilometres, and over 500,000 square kilometres if Kiiwetinoong is included.

In the Ontario northwest, we already face enormous geographical challenges to access health care. The proposed mega health unit would serve an absurdly large geographical area with distinctly different communities and distinctly different needs that no single health or paramedic unit could possibly manage without putting people’s lives at risk.

Why is this government looking to make our health care challenges in the north greater by reducing available services?

So my question is: Will this government listen to community members, health professionals and local mayors, stop the amalgamation of health units, return the monthly mobile health units, and strengthen rather than weaken access to health care in northern Ontario?

At the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, I was very pleased to be able to announce an expansion of the paramedic programs that have been incredibly successful in some of our communities. Not all Ontario communities have access to that, and we are making sure that that continues.

Now, when a paramedic today has the only option of taking their patient to an emergency department, it is a strain on the system. When we have—with the patient’s consent—the ability to take that patient to a mental health facility, to a long-term-care facility, to a palliative home, there are opportunities that, together working with the patient, make for stronger and better outcomes. That’s what we’re doing. That’s what we’re talking about when we say the status quo is not an option in the province of Ontario.

Visitors to Ontario, to different parts and communities, don’t always know that, which is why we as a government have invested, and will continue to invest, in next-generation 911.