The pandemic brought to light the deplorable conditions in many of our long-term-care homes and facilities across Ontario. We heard horror stories of residents living in deplorable conditions, dying of dehydration. It’s great that this government plans to double the number of inspectors. However, our loved ones in these homes deserve to live with dignity and respect and the necessities of life.

Is this government planning to best utilize these additional inspectors to ensure poor conditions in long-term-care homes don’t revert back once the inspector leaves? And will they be doing surprise visitations instead of planned? Better yet, is this government willing to repeal Bill 124 so that our workers—our housekeepers, our hospitality aides and nurses—get paid their fair share for the work they do?

A constituent of mine—who wishes to remain anonymous, so we will call her Sarah—reached out to my office to share her “health care horror story.” Sarah explained that after waiting for three hours at Juravinski Hospital for a scheduled surgery to remove suspected ovarian cancer, the surgery was cancelled at the last second because there was not a single bed available for her post-procedure. Sarah’s surgeon had mentioned that numerous other patients experienced the same last-minute cancellations just a week prior, all due to a lack of beds.

Premier, our emergency departments are at their breaking point, with ongoing surgical delays. What is this government going to do to alleviate the increased ER visits that we are seeing from Ontarians with undiagnosed issues resulting from pandemic delays, surgeries being pushed back and preventable illnesses progressing?

Premier, is this inaction around bed availability this government’s cruel and shameful strategic move to convince Ontarians that private clinics are the end-all and be-all solution to our health care woes?