My question is to the Minister of Long-Term Care. The government is now going to move people from hospitals to nursing homes that they do not want to go to. If they refuse to go, will they be billed for their hospital bed?

Can the minister guarantee right now that if a senior refuses to go to a care home they don’t want, they will never be billed for their hospital bed?

Why does this government believe it’s okay for health care to come with a bill?

It’s a great honour to welcome and introduce Garrett Hein from my office for the first time at Queen’s Park.

I only want to highlight one comment from Allan O’Dette from the Ontario Medical Association: The OMA “supports the initiatives announced today by the government....

“Strengthening collaboration with government, doctors and other health care stakeholders is critical to resolving the unprecedented pressures on Ontario’s health care system.”

No one group can do this alone, Speaker. We must do this together.

Our five-point plan does that. We are working with our partners to make sure that all capacity within our health care system is there when people need it, where they need it.

We are having a summer sitting, and this is the perfect time—the kids are having summer vacation—to bring them here and show them the chamber of responsibility. I’d like to welcome high school student and my daughter, Suvidhi Anand, to the chamber.

I really think the opposition would benefit from a reading of the bill, because if the Leader of the Opposition actually read the bill, he would see that on the very first page it says that nobody will be removed from a hospital who is discharged from a hospital into long-term care without their consent.

Just to reconfirm that: In subsection 60.1(7), it also again reconfirms that nobody will be removed from a hospital acute care setting to a long-term-care home without their consent.

I’ll give it to the member opposite: As I said yesterday, I can appreciate that they didn’t read the bill when they had the opportunity Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday or even this morning. I can appreciate that he wasn’t here for the leadoff speeches, where we identified what we are actually—

This government’s grand plan to fix our health care crisis is to throw open the door to privatized health care. But funnelling patients to private health care will only bleed resources out of our public hospitals and will make the health care crisis even worse.

We know that health care privatization always ends up with patients getting the bill. If Ontarians won’t need to use their credit cards for health care, please explain why there is currently no provincial oversight to protect patients against inappropriate charges for publicly funded surgeries.

I would like to introduce nurse Dave Verch as well as Angela Glanzman from the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions who are here with us today. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

It does concern me that the member opposite and the party opposite do not believe that there can be innovative solutions to what are very long-standing problems. We cannot keep doing the same thing and expect different results. Status quo is not an option. That is why our five-point plan includes additional capacity, like expanding surgical units and the access to it, like expanding how we are using—in 40 communities across Ontario—the community paramedic program. These are the innovations that Ontarians need and deserve.

I don’t know if you’ve heard from your constituents waiting for those surgeries, but I have. I want to make sure that where we have capacity within our health care system, whether it is in hospitals or, in fact, in independent health facilities, we use that to make sure that people get the surgeries when they need them, as quickly as we can get them.

I point to a quote from Dr. Rose Zacharias, the president of the Ontario Medical Association: “Physicians are resilient, compassionate, high-capacity people. We need to spend our health care dollars strategically and fill these existing gaps.” We will do that working with our partners. I implore the members opposite to work with us on it.

Specifically on the surgical wait-lists: As part of our province’s Surgical Recovery Strategy, we’ve invested over $880 million over the last three fiscal years—and Speaker, I might remind the member that that’s over the last three years because we understood that there were going to be backlogs and we needed to take these steps proactively to make sure that individuals like Doug got their surgery as quickly as they could. We have funded Ontario hospitals to expand their surgical unit hours for exactly the reason the member opposite raises.

The 400 additional physician residents who are now practising in northern and rural Ontario are to expand and allow more opportunities for people to be able to access care closer to home as quickly as possible. We are making these investments. We are doing this because we understand. We want people like Doug to make sure that the high-quality, amazing health care that we have in the province of Ontario—they are accessing closer to home.

Speaker, through you to the Minister of Health: A Niagara boxing legend is fighting for his life. Doug Dobias is a prolific boxer and coach. Nearly a decade ago, Doug suffered a botched surgery on a hernia. Over the years, it got so bad he lost nearly 100 pounds and was unable to eat or drink. His nutrient levels were so low doctors feared his heart would give out.

Surgeons have installed a feeding tube, but it can’t stay in place for long. If the surgery to correct the initial operation can’t be done quickly, Doug will suffer lifelong consequences. But because of Ontario’s massive surgical backlog, it will be many months before it can happen, and by then, it might be too late.

Will this government invest the $1.3 billion earmarked by the FAO to address the surgical backlog so that Doug and people like him can have timely, life-saving surgeries? Yes or no?

Is it acceptable to this government that people in Ontario have to crowd-fund to pay for life-saving surgery in the US?

And will the minister stand up today and abandon her plan to bankrupt and privatize our health care system and instead invest in our public system so that people like Doug don’t have to pay with their credit card to save their lives?

Supplementary question.

To respond, the Minister of Health.

The final supplementary.

Minister of Health to reply.

I want to thank the member for the question.

Contrary to what the former mayors said, municipal councils and locally elected councillors play an important role in representing their constituents and ensuring delivery of local priorities. Council will not be left out of the process of local decision-making. Under our Strong Mayors, Building Homes Act, checks and balances are built into the proposal. Council can override the mayor’s veto of bylaws related to provincial priorities and budget amendments made by council with a two-thirds majority vote.

Speaker, it’s important to keep in mind that these changes are put forward to help the mayors of Toronto and Ottawa cut red tape and get shovels in the ground faster. The mayor is obviously still a member of council and still would have one vote on matters brought before council in the very same way that they do presently.

Speaker, that’s from the Auditor General’s December 2021 report. Let me quote further from that report:

“We found that some patients could be given misleading information as part of sales practices to make a profit.”

Further, “The ministry is putting patients at greater financial risk by allowing additional private organizations to provide publicly funded surgeries while also being allowed to charge patients directly for additional uninsured services to make a profit.”

In the case of cataract surgeries, these add-on charges cost patients anywhere from $450 to almost $5,000.

So my question: Do you believe it is your job to protect Ontarians and not the bottom line of for-profit providers?

The most disturbing finding in the Auditor General’s report: “The inconsistency in the way oversight of various service providers is conducted means that neither the Ministry nor Ontario Health has a full picture of outpatient surgeries across the province.” This is remarkable.

We know that your government’s failure to provide oversight in for-profit long-term-care homes resulted in thousands of seniors’ deaths. So why then, for heaven’s sake, are you rushing into privatization before you make sure Ontarians can get the care they need in a public universal health care system in Ontario?

Year after year, the previous Liberal government was warned about the economic damage that road and infrastructure gridlock was going to have on our economy. In 2011, the president and CEO of the Toronto Board of Trade warned that, “The longer we take, the more gridlock hurts our economy and quality of life. We have reached a tipping point.” In 2013, the C.D. Howe Institute said congestion in and around the GTHA has cost the economy around $11 billion per year. In 2017, the Fraser Institute declared that, “Traffic congestion isn’t just a nuisance, a public health problem, or an environmental hazard. In addition to being all of those things, it’s also a significant economic harm.”

My constituents know these statements and they live the hard truths of them. They are tired of the inaction by the previous Liberal government. Can the Minister of Transportation tell us why it’s critical that our government advance infrastructure like the Bradford Bypass and bring relief to the people of Ontario?

Minister of Long-Term Care.

Start the clock. Supplementary question.

Yes, Mr. Speaker. I announced that on Thursday, and of course the opposition have said they are not supportive of that.

It is so important that we bring back respite care to the province of Ontario. We’re in a position to do that, Mr. Speaker. Many of us have heard how important this is during the campaign. We’re in a position to do that because over 85% of long-term-care residents have their fourth dose of vaccine, so we can do that.

I implore the member: If you believe in what you have just asked, then surely you will be supporting this bill.

Interjections.

I hope the honourable gentleman will do the honourable thing: Withdraw what he just said, stop getting people worried about what is happening. This is a way of building health care in the province of Ontario, including in Ottawa, and he should be a part of helping us do that.

Interjections.

If he went further, Mr. Speaker, he would know that the act guarantees that and it actually provides up to $60 million on a go-forward basis to ensure that we have behavioural supports for patients, that we can provide kidney dialysis for patients, because for the first time, long-term care will be part of the solution as we build an integrated health care system in the province of Ontario. And despite what he is saying, we will continue to do that on this side of the House, despite the failings of 15 years of Liberal government.

Thank you to the member from Barrie–Innisfil for the question. Speaker, for decades, previous Liberal governments ignored calls to build the Bradford Bypass. Under this Premier’s leadership, we are finally getting it done.

In the next 30 years, the population of the greater Golden Horseshoe will grow to the size of what Ontario’s population is today: 15 million people. With that in mind, the do-nothing approach of the opposition parties is no longer an option. Speaker, we need to get building. Farmers, families and businesses have been paralyzed by gridlock on our major highways long enough. Building the Bradford Bypass will change that. The new highway is expected to save 35 minutes per trip; that’s more than one hour per day, or five hours per week, that you won’t have to spend behind the wheel.

Speaker, we can’t afford to let gridlock get any worse. The time to act is now. Our government is getting on with the job of finally building the Bradford Bypass.

My question is to the Premier. Rick Brown lives in London West and is exhausted from more than five years of caring for his wife, Marian, who has an incurable brain disorder. His only break is during her weekly nine hours of home and community care. Before the pandemic, Marian could stay up to a week at a long-term-care home through the short stay respite program. That program was suspended in March 2020.

Will this government restore the short stay respite program to give caregivers like Rick the break they so desperately need?

The ministry told us that the short stay respite program was suspended to free up long-term-care beds. Why is this government more interested in forcing seniors from hospitals into long-term care than in providing caregivers like Rick with the respite they deserve?

My question is to the Premier. For months now, long-term-care homes across Ontario have been pleading with this government for help, and Bill 124 has done more damage to them than any other piece of legislation I can remember. Now the government is proposing Bill 7. Bill 7 is going to violate patients’ basic rights by changing the law to allow them, among other things, to be moved without their consent. That’s cruel.

Imagine this conversation, Speaker: “Mrs. Smith, we’re going to have to move your mom.” “But you can’t move her. We won’t be able to see her. That’s too far.” “I’m sorry, Mrs. Smith, that’s the law. I have no choice.”

Bill 7 is not going to work for patients, their families or the people who care for them. Will this government withdraw Bill 7?

Instead of creating greater pressure in our long-term-care homes, this government should be repealing Bill 124 and withdrawing Bill 7. Will this government commit to do that?

Those are fantastic questions. It’s important for members of this House to remember that under our proposed changes, mayors are still subject to the legislative accountability and transparency measure. This includes proposed new laws that would prevent the mayor from using the new powers when they would have a conflict.

The legislation also explicitly prevents the mayor from being able to hire certain positions. The posts would include positions like the police chief, the chief building official, the medical officer of health. There are many, many others that are under legislative prescription.

We’re giving mayors the tools they need to get things done, to get shovels in the ground faster. And we’re going to hold them accountable to the decisions they make. We’re counting on them to cut red tape to get housing built faster so that families can realize attainable home ownership.

Thank you for the question.

The member highlights exactly why we have been working so aggressively as a government, across ministries, to make sure that we have capacity within our health care system. I point to the ability for internationally educated health care professionals to be able to quickly get their licences so that we have that expanded capacity. I point to the 400 new physicians that are practising in rural and northern Ontario. I point to the $880 million over the last three fiscal years that was invested to reduce surgical wait times.

I understand. When scheduled surgeries have to be cancelled because a higher-priority patient has come in and needs to be looked after first through triage, it is incredibly frustrating for that patient and that family. That’s why we’ve made these investments, and that’s why we will continue to work with all of our health care partners to make sure they have the services and the resources they need.

The concept of picking one issue and insisting that is the solution—we’ve heard very clearly from medical experts across Canada and indeed worldwide that we are experiencing shortages, which is why we’re working with the College of Nurses, we’re working with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario to expedite those individuals who are living in the province of Ontario, have that experience and were educated in other jurisdictions to quickly be able to get their certification and licensing.