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.

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?

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, 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?

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.

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?