The pandemic pushed Ontario’s health care system to its limits. After years of chronic staffing shortages, budget cuts and neglect from the previous Liberal government, deep flaws within the health care network were exposed. We must alleviate the strain on the system and ensure that we build a more robust, more resilient health care network. That means having doctors to meet future health care needs of Ontarians.

Speaker, can the Minister of Colleges and Universities explain what the government is doing to train the health care professionals needed to care for the people of Ontario?

Can the minister share with us what the government is doing to increase the number of undergraduate and postgraduate medical education positions across the province?

Speaker, through you to the Minister of Health: From hospitals to urgent care to doctors’ offices, people across this province and in my home community of Niagara are facing dangerously long wait times. My constituent Howard Disher, a 79-year-old from Welland, has an enlarged prostate that is of great concern to his family doctor. He was referred to a urologist. However, not only are they still facing a serious backlog from COVID, Niagara is also facing a doctor shortage. Howard was told not to expect an actual consult appointment for over a year. To complicate matters, Howard’s family doctor is expected to retire soon.

Can the minister explain to Howard how it is acceptable in the province of Ontario to have to wait over a year to have a serious medical concern addressed?

Will this government finally implement the recommendations we brought forward back in March and remove the barriers for the internationally trained doctors and health care workers we want and need in this province?