I want to thank the member from Ottawa South for his presentation. He mentioned the previous Mike Harris government and talked about hospital closures, funding cuts—I would add on the destruction of the model for our education system—privatizing our health care sector, long-term care, seniors’ care or home care. There are a lot of things to mention.

I would like to ask the member if you would enlighten us a little bit in terms of the way that the Harris legacy has impacted us and where we are today, and what this bill would mean for the future.

Questions to the member for Ottawa South?

Over the last four years, in my riding, our hospitals have had $21 million of investment in redevelopments that are long overdue and did not occur for 15 years prior to that.

I want to know what the member opposite has to say to those who lie in hallways on gurneys waiting for care.

I had a senior resident in my community who was in septic shock, was on a gurney for three days in the emergency ward before being admitted to a hospital bed, and spent three weeks there. That constituent was my father.

What does the member opposite have to say to those residents, those Ontarians, who lie in wait in emergency rooms, waiting for rooms that they can’t get because there’s an alternate-level-of-care patient who has been discharged, who’s ready to be moved and can’t be moved?

It’s an absolute honour for me to be able to rise in the House today as the member for Brampton East.

I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all newly elected and re-elected members on their election to this House. Each of us has taken a different path to get here, but all with a common goal regardless of our political stripes: That is our shared belief in the values of democracy, service to our community and doing the best we can for the great people of Ontario. I look forward to serving this term with all of you here today.

Comprised of a population of just over 121,000, the great riding of Brampton East is one of the most diverse, vibrant and fast-growing areas in the country. I would like to thank the residents of Brampton East for putting their trust in me and giving me the honour of representing them in this House. I would like to thank all the hard-working volunteers and supporters who worked tirelessly to send me here to Queen’s Park and for the time they took out making phone calls, knocking on doors and putting up signs across the riding. I’m especially grateful to everyone who hosted meet-and-greet events in their backyards. Speaker, we had just over 60 backyard get-togethers in the span of 28 days. Every day, when I take my seat in this Legislature, I always appreciate them and remember the tremendous amount of hard work it took to make history here in Brampton East. It is with their time, love and support that this is a reality. To my friends, to my volunteers and family who sacrificed many long nights and many long days, thank you. Thank you for taking a chance in a riding where no one ever once thought the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario stood a chance. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Without you, this victory would not have been possible. I would also like to give a special shout-out to the hundreds of youth volunteers who helped our team break records knocking on doors. It was with their support that we were able to deliver our party’s message of “Yes” to building Ontario’s and Brampton’s infrastructure, from hospitals to highways, to universities and so much more. They helped us deliver this message to each and every household in this riding many times over.

To me, community is everything. From my early childhood onwards, I was shaped by my community, and I will never forget my roots. That is why I will always be a strong advocate for the residents of Brampton East and Brampton, and that is my promise to all the constituents of Brampton East and Brampton.

Speaker, I would also like to take this opportunity to thank two very important individuals to whom I owe everything: my mother, Parminder Kaur Grewal, and my father, Jagdish Singh Grewal. Without their hard work, sacrifice and commitment, I would not be who I am today.

My parents came to Canada at a very young age in search of a new life full of opportunity, with nothing in their pockets but a strong work ethic and a dream to succeed, just like a lot of other immigrant parents that have come to this great country over a number of many years. My mother worked multiple jobs, most prominently in my memory working as a window and glass factory assembly line worker, standing up for countless hours with aching hands and feet, to come home and then take care of my brother, my sister and myself. She always made us feel loved, and no matter the hardships, always made sure that we had everything that we could ever ask for.

My father also worked multiple jobs. In fact, just one day after landing in Abbotsford, BC, in 1989, he started his first job the very next day picking blueberries, and then later to move to Toronto to start a career in heavy-duty mechanics and later join the Canadian Armed Forces here in Toronto. With that said, Speaker, in 1994, I was born, and the forces had different plans for him. He had papers to move from Toronto to be stationed in Petawawa. At the request of my mother, he decided to make Etobicoke North our home and worked as an automotive technician at Chrysler for many years.

Before immigrating to Canada, he was studying to be a lawyer and was a passionate writer and poet, and after years of community involvement in various broadcast media, charitable, sports, writing and poetry organizations, in 2002 he left Chrysler and started the first daily Punjabi-language newspaper in the world outside of India, the Canadian Punjabi Post. As his list of professions continues to evolve and grow, I consider this his most notable achievement, none of which would have been possible without the steadfast support of my mother. I’m extremely sure that, in 1989, when my father landed in Abbotsford, British Columbia, and started his first job in Canada picking blueberries, the last thing he imagined was that his son would be a member in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. This is one of Canada’s greatest beauties: No matter where you come from, who you worship, if you work hard enough, the sky is the limit.

My parents worked hard, persevered. They never gave up. No matter the financial struggles they went through to establish themselves, they remained positive and hopeful. They are my inspiration. They are the reason why I want to fight for Ontarians and the people of Brampton and ensure that our future generations have the same opportunities of success and the same opportunities to succeed.

I would also like to thank my grandmother, Surjit Kaur Grewal, and my grandfather, Kirpal Singh Grewal, who also served in the Indian Army, retired, then immigrated to Canada. I have been fortunate to spend a lot of my early childhood with my grandparents. I love them both, and I would like to thank them for instilling great values, taking care of me and always being my biggest supporters in any endeavor that I’ve chosen to take in my life. I know there is no one prouder than my grandfather, who watches every time I speak in the House at home on his iPad, and then has his remarks ready as soon as I walk in the door.

As both my father and grandfather served in the military, you can just imagine the discipline in our household and the early wakeup calls, and that is one thing that I’ve never been fond of.

I would also like to thank my younger brother, Chetan Singh Grewal, and my sister, Harleen Kaur Grewal, for always being so supportive and always being there by my side. No matter how big or small of a task, they were always ready to help, and especially during the course of the campaign and in everyday life, they are my backbone. They’re the ones I rely on to get the job done because they work tirelessly, day and night, to ensure things run smoothly, and the success of this campaign would not have been possible without them by my side each and every day. I’m truly blessed to have siblings like the both of you.

Speaker, one thing most people might not understand is the kind of stress it puts on family members of a person who puts their name forward for public office and the sacrifices they must make in their lives. I’m so blessed and beyond grateful for an extended family, close friends and relatives, all of whom played an important role in getting me where I am here today.

I would like to talk a little bit about my own personal journey into public service and politics. I was born and raised in Etobicoke North, and I started my journey into politics and community service when I was super young, between 12 and 15 years old.

As I mentioned before, my father was a journalist, and I would passionately spend most of my days with him, attending local community events, press conferences and meetings, and those that knew me at the time knew that I was most notable for my photojournalism, taking pictures at events, going to press conferences, taking pictures of leaders, and then being very excited when they were published in my father’s very own newspaper and various other outlets, including the national media, depending on the circumstances.

So what this did is, it allowed me to have a lot of face time with government officials, such as Prime Ministers, Premiers, mayors, and it’s through these interactions that my personal interest in politics began. I had the opportunity to meet with some of Canada’s most influential leaders and learn first-hand what had inspired them to run and serve our great country.

One of my most memorable visits was when I was just 14 years old and I was attending a garden party at the Right Honourable Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s residence. And just being there, being able to take in that aura and being able to speak to whomever I pleased, whether it was a minister, whether it was an MP, whether it was a government relations stakeholder, and being able to discuss the various things that mattered most to them really helped inspire me to get here where I am today. At first-hand, I got to build individual relationships and then they encouraged me to get involved further.

It was then when I met the immigration minister and now Premier of Alberta, Jason Kenney, who I’m proud to call a good friend, someone who’s always encouraged me to pursue my dreams. And as I met Premier Kenney, I met so many other ministers, MPs, and they all had the same level of encouragement to help support my dreams of one day being in the public sector, whether it was through service as staff or through service as a volunteer or through service today as, I’m so proud to be, the MPP from Brampton East.

At every opportunity available to me, I volunteered with many campaigns in various levels of government, from putting up signs to managing campaigns and virtually everything in between, no matter how big or small. At the young age of 18, I became the local riding president of Etobicoke North, a position I held for approximately eight years, to later move on as an elected regional director on the PC Ontario Fund.

And fast-forward—after a couple of nomination attempts which didn’t go my way—to today, to being the candidate in Brampton East and to being the MPP in Brampton East. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Honourable Premier Doug Ford for the role that he played in shaping me into who I am today. I still remember the meetings he used to have with me in Perkins, a famous restaurant in Etobicoke, many, many years ago. I still remember his guidance and words of wisdom over the years. It is truly an honour to be a part of this government today and serve under his leadership.

I would also like to thank two more individuals, MPP Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria and MPP Amarjot Sandhu, who over the last four years have kept me involved and informed in the process. Through their offices, I’ve been able to volunteer and continuously help the residents of Brampton East. It’s a great feeling when you have two brothers in the House which you can continuously turn to for support and guidance. I, alongside my newly elected colleagues MPP McGregor and MPP Williams, hope to amplify the great work that they’ve been doing advocating for Brampton over the last four years.

I’m extremely thankful to all of those who have supported me in my endeavours throughout my entire life. I’m especially grateful to the residents of Brampton East and I’m extremely humbled, grateful and excited to be here and serve in the 43rd Parliament of Ontario.

Speaker, when I think about Brampton, not only do I think about the numerous amounts of young entrepreneurs that we have, because their average median age is 35, we also have a very vibrant social community which continues to thrive and which continues to hold social events and strengthen our community. On many occasions, I’ve had the opportunity of meeting with various seniors’ clubs, and the seniors’ clubs in our area are extremely active and involved in the every day—whether it’s politics, sports, you name it. They continue to promote social inclusiveness and harmony. Not only are the seniors present at these large gatherings, they gather with their grandkids and family members where they engage in various activities like poetry, singing, sports and discussions on current affairs. These gatherings are essential for building communities together and improving mental health, and I’m always grateful for their support. I look forward to working with them over the next coming years.

Speaker, let’s talk about the reasons why we’re all here and what we’re going to do for the people of Ontario as a PC government. Our plan was clearly communicated with Ontarians during this election. I’m glad they voted for a plan that will build Ontario’s infrastructure, from housing to hospitals to universities and highways and so much more.

Over the last four years, our Progressive Conservative government has worked hard to ensure Brampton would no longer be left behind as it was with the previous Liberal government. It is because of these efforts Brampton residents unanimously supported our party’s vision to build more long-term-care beds that better fit the community’s needs. For decades, residents have been asking for care homes which provide service to the people in their own native languages. This is the government that said yes.

Bramptonians have been asking for a second hospital, and unlike the previous government, this government said yes.

Brampton residents asked for a new university, and it is this government that said yes to delivering a new medical school that Brampton residents have been so tirelessly asking for over many years.

Brampton residents were also tired of being stuck in traffic and have been asking for more highway infrastructure for years and, unlike the previous government, this government said yes to building Highway 413.

I’m so proud to be working under Premier Ford’s leadership, a leader that wants to get it done not only just for Brampton, but for all of Ontario.

Our constituents were tired. They were tired of the status quo and wanted change, change that would build the infrastructure that the city so desperately needed, and with our Premier’s vision and the support of Bramptonians, we made history in Brampton East and across the city.

Speaker, as I was going around campaigning during the election, I got to speak to many, many residents in my riding, all looking for Ontario’s plan to grow for the future. Over the next four years, I look forward to taking on the difficult challenges that our province is currently facing, but I am confident that, under Premier Ford’s leadership, our government will deliver a balanced plan to build Ontario up, by growing Ontario’s economy, investing in education, building and renovating schools, strengthening our health care system, investing in roads, transit, modern infrastructure, while cutting red tape and creating good-paying jobs for everyone in the province.

It’s time that we, together, build Ontario: a strong, vibrant and successful province and economy. Let’s keep our taxes low. Let’s continue to create a competitive business environment that attracts investments and creates good jobs. Let’s build roads, highways, and other critical infrastructure that helps get goods and services to market sooner. Let’s build livable and safe communities with good schools and high-quality hospitals and long-term-care homes, as well as convenient transit options. Let’s grow our auto manufacturing sector and become leaders in North America’s electric-vehicle battery manufacturing industry. Together, let’s build a health care system that better cares for patients and keeps our province open.

Again, I’m so proud to be working under Premier Ford’s leadership, a leadership that puts people first. I’m proud to be a part of the government that is making the largest investment in the province’s history to build and expand hospitals across Ontario, especially in communities like Brampton, places that have been advocating for better health care infrastructure for years.

Speaker: promises made, promises kept. We will soon see shovels in the ground across Ontario and see our province grow.

As the time is coming close to an end, I would like to thank the House for allowing me this opportunity to speak about our government’s exciting plans today. Over the next four years, I look forward to taking on the difficult challenges our province is currently facing, but I’m extremely confident that our government will build a stronger province for generations to come.

The members across love to speak about history, as long as it’s not their own history. They love to ignore the fact that they caused a mass exodus of health care workers. They love to ignore the fact that they created a backlog of 22 million services. They love to ignore the fact that the ALC beds ballooned under their administration.

So, to the member across, what would you have preferred—what should the throne speech have said in order for this government to have addressed its own failures?

My question to the member opposite is regarding things that are in the bill. The things that have been mentioned, the language that has been used—“coercion,” “forced to move away from friends and family,” “move to the worst homes in the province”—are all things that this bill protects our fragile seniors in ALC from. What does the member think language like that means to a fragile person sitting in ALC?

I encourage all of us to speak positively to our seniors and not put this fear forward.

Questions?

I’d like to thank the member for the question.

This bill is about long-term care. Twenty-five years ago, we started an experiment in long-term care here in this province, bringing in for-profit long-term care, and successive governments, of which I was a part, continued it. I have to say, during the pandemic we all saw the results of that experiment—not good results. It’s not a path we should have gone down. It doesn’t work. You can’t serve two masters. You can’t pay dividends and care for people.

The homes that generally aren’t on people’s list of choices are the for-profit homes. The lists for non-profit homes are very long.

What this bill is going to do right now is, it’s going to send people where they don’t want to go. It’s not right. This is kind of a continuation of that legacy.

I think we all care about seniors here—people in our families, people in other people’s families. But I kind of feel like I’m in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. There’s a bill that says you can move people without their consent, and the government continually says, “You can’t do that”—but it’s in the bill.

Then, nobody says how far people are going to move—“Well, just leave that for regulations. We’ll find out later.” No one says anything about how it’s going to cost you more money if you decide not to go.

I think it would be easier to have a reasonable, positive debate if we could actually debate, if we could actually put it to committee, if we could actually let people come and tell us what was going to happen. That’s why we have committees—because we don’t all work in that sector; we don’t all know that sector. But I’ve been doing this for 20 years in a community office. I know what happens when couples get separated.

What I’m saying is, this bill is going to create more problems. It’s going to hurt more than it helps.

I think we answered the question about how long—this is being put out as a temporary measure, but it’s permanent. There’s no sunset clause in here.

Interjections.

I’m sorry I missed the member’s press conference, but I think Ontarians deserve these answers. That’s why we should be debating it and putting it to committee. The government should be forthright about it. It’s obviously something that they’re proud of.

I think that your question is spot-on.

What I would say, respectfully, is, Bill 124 has done more damage to our health care human resources—

Interjections.

Interjections.

Respectfully, if you don’t have a nurse, it’s pretty hard to get someone off a gurney into a bed. But I would also say to the person who’s in that bed, who’s 80 or 90, who has a spouse—the farther you move that person away, the harder it is for that spouse. It’s about their quality of life. Just because they’re old doesn’t mean they don’t have rights. Just because they’re old doesn’t mean they don’t deserve a quality of life. So that shouldn’t happen.

I would, respectfully, submit that actually repealing Bill 124 about 18 months ago would have made a difference in this province, and actually respecting nurses and front-line health care workers, and not saying wonderful things and then not following it up with action.

Do you know what? When they engrave this Ford government in granite, it is going to say, “Here lies the Ford government—I need a plan in two weeks.”

During the course of this election, we promised Bramptonians that we would never leave them behind, that we would be their strong voice in Parliament and be here every day to advocate on their behalf. That’s why our government is building Brampton’s second hospital. That’s why our government is investing in a lot of long-term-care homes for our beautiful city of Brampton, which I may highlight again. It is an extreme honour to say that the communities have been asking for this for decades on decades on decades, and this is the government that delivered long-term-care homes, that will have nurse practitioners speak in their own native languages and provide food that is native to their home country. That makes a huge difference for seniors, who are used to living at home with family or with other relatives, that they have those same services and that those services continue, and they feel like they’re at home. These are the things that we’re delivering.

In my campaign, I also talked a lot about strengthening our police services and—

It’s always a joy being in this House for the maiden speeches. I want to thank the member from Brampton East. His frame of his maiden speech, when he’s talking about family, then talks about his support network, talks about his drive that got him here. And then the last moments of his speech—I don’t agree with a lot of what he said, but it was good; it was good, I tell you.

The part that I really enjoyed is your family. That was awesome. That was beautiful. My mom, unfortunately, didn’t see me come to the House or be elected, but she would have loved it, because she tried to get me involved in politics, and I just hated it with a passion. It’s funny. It took me 43 years to find out what my calling was, and I’m supposed to be here. I love being here, and I have always remembered that it’s a privilege and an honour to be here. Don’t forget that, you know? Your family, your loved ones, don’t forget them behind. Don’t let this place overwhelm you. Don’t forget that it’s your constituents—you knocked on their doors—that have given you that honour and privilege to be here.

Having said that, my question to you is: What can your constituents expect from you over the course of your term?

Questions to the member for Brampton East?

Sorry, Speaker, have I hit the clock? I apologize.

Not only when we talk about the global effect—we talk about creating a manufacturing hub in Ontario. It is only with the new highway infrastructure investments that we’re going to get goods moving faster and provide better service at a faster speed, while having a solid, quality transportation network throughout the entire Peel region.

I know the residents of Peel, especially Brampton, thank the government for supporting their new highway, Highway 413.

The biggest surprise that has come to my family is that I’m out the door every single day at 6 a.m. and I’m not home till 7, and on the couple of days that I do have off, I’m attending events from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. at night. They’re just astonished at the level of commitment that I have put into this job. I will continue that commitment for the remainder of my time here. That commitment stands for the residents of Brampton East. I’ll always be there, and I’ll always be their strong voice in this House.

When you’re stuck in traffic all day and all that time is spent in your car, when that time could have been spent with your loved ones at home or that time could have been spent doing something productive—the residents spoke up loud and clear that they need new transit and new highway infrastructure.

When it comes to, especially, Highway 413—if you ever try to travel from Brampton East to Brampton West, due to the lack of transportation, you’ll see us take between 45 to 50 minutes to get from one end to the other end, which isn’t even a very long distance when it comes to kilometres. Highway 413 will increase travel within the city, and not only connect us further to the east and west corridor—when it comes to travelling towards Barrie or driving towards the Detroit border—but also intercity travel for the residents. It’s going to be an amazing thing, not only for transportation, goods and services, but for the residents locally to get around a lot easier.

Yes, it is true; we did run a nomination against each other. But I’m also proud of the fact that we’ve been able to maintain a very healthy and friendly relationship with each other, and I’m proud to call the member from Mississauga–Malton a very good friend. It is true, in fact, that we campaigned alongside each other for my father in 2015, when he ran for the Conservative Party in Mississauga–Malton. I do thank him for helping our family during that time.

The legacy that I want to leave behind is a legacy of hard work, a legacy of somebody who has always been there for the community, always answers their phone; is always at their events, is always listening to their concerns; and not only just listening to those concerns, but delivering on those concerns. When it comes to issues like community safety, health care, infrastructure, I want to be their number one advocate on providing those supports, working with our municipal partners and federal partners to help deliver those changes—because those are non-partisan changes. Those are things that we need to do collectively to serve the great people of Brampton and Ontario, and that’s what I’m looking forward to doing.

I’d like to thank the member from Brampton East for his inaugural speech. I thought it was excellent—hearing about how you came to this place, your history, and what your vision is.

It was also interesting, in your comments, when you were talking about all the backyard barbecues, which reminds us all that we are elected by the grassroots, we are elected by the people in our community.

I was also especially pleased with your recognition of your parents, your siblings and your grandparents. It makes me think: Who’s the tougher questioner, the official opposition or your grandfather?

In all seriousness, family is the glue that holds us all together, that makes it possible for us to have this political life.

My question is: Since you’ve been elected, what is the thing that surprises your family the most?

It is always a pleasure to rise in this place and speak on behalf of the people I represent in London West. I’m pleased to contribute to the debate that has unfolded in this Legislature over the past four weeks on the address from the Lieutenant Governor in the government’s throne speech.

A throne speech is what opens a session of a new Parliament. It is a big picture of you, of the government’s priorities, and the issues that it is planning to focus on in this session of government.

It’s interesting; as I’ve said, four weeks ago we all gathered here to listen to the address from the speech from the throne, and now, in the waning days, we understand, of this very rare summer session, we are continuing to debate that speech.

Speaker, the context in which this debate is taking place is certainly of huge concern to all of us in this place, and, in particular, for the people we represent.

Our health care system is crumbling around us, and we hear this all the time in the stories that constituents bring to our offices. Some of us have had personal experiences with family members who have also encountered the fraying of that health care system that we need to be able to rely on.

Housing is a major concern for every Ontarian in this province, every constituent who is represented by MPPs in this chamber. In London, our wait-list for subsidized housing has grown to over 6,000 people; it’s an increase of over 1,000 in just the last four years.

We also have a climate emergency that has never been more apparent and more frightening, when we consider the implications of not taking action to address climate change.

Unfortunately, this throne speech is not a document that gives Ontarians hope that any of those issues will be addressed.

It doesn’t give Ontarians hope, who are grappling with the reality of an 8.1% inflation rate—unprecedented. I read a petition just earlier today that referred to the first-ever 4.5%, I think, inflation rate. That petition was written just a year ago, and now we are looking at inflation of over 8%.

The affordability challenges that people in this province are facing are very real, and they are having an incredibly difficult impact on people’s lives. People need to feel hopeful that the government, the people they have elected to govern in the best interest of all of the citizens in this province—they need to feel hopeful that the decisions that are made are going to be ones that help them in their daily lives, that help them with the health care system, that help them with housing, that help them with affordability, and that take bold action to address the climate crisis.

I want to get back to health care. I’m going to spend a significant amount of time, during my remarks, on what is happening in our health care system and what I am seeing in London and the surrounding areas.

As you are probably aware, Speaker, there are about 25 hospitals across the province that have closed or reduced hours in their emergency rooms and other areas of the hospital. This includes many of the small hospitals surrounding the city of London.

We had St. Marys, Seaforth, Clinton, Listowel, Wingham, Walkerton, Chesley—all of those are small hospitals in southwestern Ontario, in the immediate vicinity of London, that had to either close their ERs or cut back services.

The reality is, in these small hospitals they only have, typically, a very small number of staff. So when you have staff who are on leave or who are sick with COVID, it can have a dramatic effect on the hospital’s ability to operate.

So, in the case of those small hospitals, the pressure that’s being experienced is directly related to the health care worker staffing pressures, and how that has manifested in London, at London Health Sciences Centre, are some cutbacks in some hospital programs. We heard that the maternity ward at LHSC was preparing pregnant women that they should be ready for the possibility that they may not be able to get a scheduled induction if they need one. The epilepsy unit announced a temporary closure because of the staffing shortage.

In addition to these cutbacks in hospital services, we’re also seeing a growing list of people in our communities who don’t have access to family doctors, and we know what happens when people don’t want have access to primary care. They can’t get access to the preventive screening tests that they need to prevent a visit to the emergency room. They are not able to get things looked at before they become acute and lead them into a crisis situation in the hospital. This is a problem that I certainly encountered from the very beginning, when I was elected in 2013, but I have never seen it as bad as it has been. Every day, we hear from two or three constituents, at least, who can’t get access to a family doctor.

I want to give you an example of one of the recent calls that we took. A 90-year-old man had a heart problem and called his family doctor, but his family doctor was fully booked and ready to leave on vacation. They had someone to cover, but there was a gap of three or four days until that coverage was going to be in place. He tried to go to urgent care in the city, but it was closed. He was going to try to go to emergency, but he was concerned about how hard it was to be seen and was reluctant to go to emergency, and with good reason. We just saw, over the weekend, in London, the emergency room posted a sign that prepared people in that room to be ready to wait 20 hours. That was the number that was written on the sign. People are looking at a 20-hour wait to have their health issue looked at.

Speaker, I want to get back to what I said initially—that this is very directly related to the shortage of health care workers that we are experiencing across the system.

I want to read a quote from one of the CEOs of one of these small hospitals, Michael Barrett. He is the CEO for the South Bruce Grey Health Centre hospitals, and he talked about the fact that the hospital corporation is using private agency nurses to fill the gaps and help maintain some coverage of the ERs. He told a reporter, “It is concerning that a considerable amount of money is being spent on agency nurses and we’re not in a position because of the collective agreement to be able to do the same for our own staff.

“We pay agency nurses considerably more than what we pay our staff.”

He said he wants to do everything he can to entice his staff to work these difficult shifts. But other than raising the concern, as he said he and others like him have—he was unaware of the government doing anything to help hospitals like his deal with this staffing pressure.

We know what the government needs to do. The government needs to repeal Bill 124. That has been the universal refrain of health sector workers and public sector workers since that unconstitutional—as we will find out—legislation was brought forward in this place.

The government needs to take some action on the violence that health care workers are experiencing in the workplace. I want to commend my colleague the member for Nickel Belt on her perseverance in trying to get legislation passed that will address the escalating violence that health care workers are facing on a daily basis.

We saw that a physician in London, actually, in the spring, was attacked by somebody with a knife and a hammer. Somehow, that person got into the hospital and assaulted the doctor.

We just recently saw an incident in Goderich where an armed man came in and threatened health care workers.

So, clearly, there is a need to take action on the violence that health care workers are facing.

But to get back to Bill 124 and the urgency of repealing that bill: We know that what that legislation does is cap any wage increases for public sector workers at 1%, and when you have a period in which inflation is 8.1%, a 1% increase is very clearly a loss of pay. It’s a cut in pay. It is not a wage increase at all. And it is just so disrespectful to these front-line workers who have been there for us throughout the pandemic, all through every single wave and I know will be there for us in the fall as that inevitable new wave materializes.

This is good for me to share, Speaker. I want to just read from an email I received from a nurse in London West. Her name is Lindsay Smale. She says, “Many of my co-workers chose to leave. They retired early or they moved to a position in a much less stressful environment”—she counts herself among them. “Many have left the profession entirely.” She says, “We are no longer able to provide the same level of care. Patients are suffering....

“Bill 124 is the biggest slap in the face to the very people who stepped up in a time of uncertainty, when we didn’t know if we were going to get sick at work or bring it home to our families.” She says she’s currently looking at obtaining an American nursing licence so she can go practise in the US, and she’s not the only health care worker who is looking to relocate because of the disrespect that they feel from this government, the inadequacy of the compensation and benefit packages that are offered and just the challenges working in such a high-stress environment.

Speaker, in the face of these issues with our health care workforce, one would have hoped that the throne speech would have offered some solutions. The Premier—the throne speech claimed that they would implement whatever measures are needed to deal with the health care pressures, and yet they didn’t. They did not repeal Bill 124. That should have been the very first bill that we were dealing with in this place. Instead, we saw this government bring forward legislation that is going to force—through financial coercion, if nothing else, but it’s going to force vulnerable seniors and people with disabilities who are in alternative-level-of-care beds in hospitals to move to a long-term-care home that is not of their choice and where they will very likely end their days. It could be miles away from their family, and this legislation shows no regard for the actual needs of those patients, those frail people, to have family members around them.

But worse than that is this government has pushed through that bill with no opportunity for public consultation whatsoever—no opportunity for experts to propose amendments that could possibly improve this bill; no opportunity to hear from people who have loved ones in long-term care and could talk about what it would mean to them if their loved one was forced or coerced—pressured to move from a hospital or else face a big bill, but pressured to move into a long-term-care home that was not of their choice.

The other thing that we have seen this fall is messages, signals from this government that they see privatization as the solution to Ontario’s health care woes. The research has confirmed what happens when you introduce a profit motive into the health care system: equity suffers; access suffers. Health care providers, who are treating patients—when there is money involved, they may be less likely to say that’s not actually a treatment you need, because they know they get a profit for providing that treatment.

The minister has talked about how Ontarians will get health care with their OHIP card and not their credit card, but the reality is, when you go to a for-profit clinic, that for-profit provider can charge you for a wide gamut of services that you will receive. From the food or the pain medication, there are lots of ways that for-profit providers can make a buck off services that are covered by OHIP but are delivered in a private for-profit system. The people I have heard from in London West are vigorously opposed to any privatization of our health care system.

Speaker, I want to just close by saying that this government, as we have seen so often over the last four years, missed another opportunity to actually engage with Ontarians, to actually put forward positive solutions that would address the pressures that people feel every day in their daily lives.

One thing I didn’t address yet when talking about affordability is the issue of ODSP. We saw, again, a budget that was rammed through without any opportunity for public input, a budget that includes only a paltry 5% increase to ODSP. That’s $58 more a month. That’s $14.50 more a week. For someone who is struggling to try to get by on $1,169 a month, when you can’t find housing for less than $1,200 a month in my community and many communities across the province, that is insulting. It is legislated poverty, as many people have pointed out, when this government uses the social assistance programs to keep people in a condition of poverty which they will never be able to get out of. We have heard from many people that a 5% increase is not enough. What we need to do is to double social assistance rates.

Congratulations on your win, and welcome to the Legislature.

You’re from Brampton East. During the campaign, we had the Liberals talking about highways: “No more highways” and “We’re going to cancel those highways.” We had the NDP, especially in my riding—“We are going to cancel the highways. We do not need any more highways.” It came from the party of no from the Liberals and the party of no from the NDP—although, oddly enough, this morning they’re asking for more highways, but maybe only in their specific area.

Can you tell me, member from Brampton East, why the 413 is important to the residents in Brampton?

I want to congratulate the member from Brampton East for an excellent presentation. He made a couple of really important points. He talked about the historic level of investment in health care and the effect it had with new hospitals coming to Brampton and a new medical school coming to Brampton. He also talked about the global effect, because we’re building new facilities in Niagara, we’re building new facilities in Windsor and also Ottawa—and, taken together, what the effect of that is in lifting people up and providing more care, and better care, across the province.

To the member from Brampton East: Take a little bit more time and talk about the effect in Brampton East with this historic investment, led by our finance minister and Premier Ford, to better health care in Brampton East.

Mr. Speaker, I’d like to welcome the member from Brampton East to Queen’s Park. I actually had done door-knocking for your father. Not many people know, but we actually ran for the same riding at the same time as well.

He’s young; he’s going to be coming many, many times again.

After all these years of being an MPP—hopefully, you’ll never retire, but if you do retire at some point—what kind of legacy do you want to leave for Brampton East?

Response?

Further debate?

Just for those people who might be tuning in now or have been listening, what we’re debating is the motion in reply to the speech from the throne.

An important aspect in that particular speech, Speaker, and you’ll remember this—I’ll put my glasses on so I can quote it correctly. This is an investment of “more than $1 billion in a skilled trades strategy to reduce the harmful stigma around the trades, particularly for women and young people, while expanding training opportunities to help build the most highly skilled workforce in North America.” That’s been led and led well by our Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development. It also includes a partnership of several unions who, yes, supported us during the election, but who have been a key part of the success that we’ve had thus far.

From time to time when we’re debating this particular motion or other important motions or subsets coming out of what we’re debating today, all we hear is no. More stalling. More of the status quo. Are we going to hear that again? Skills development, opportunities for young men and young women in this province they haven’t had before—because of the leadership of that minister, the leadership of our Premier and of our cabinet. Is the member from London West going to stand in her place again and say no?