Thank you. I will try to remember all the pieces of that.

Yes, the Thunder Bay injured workers support group is an amazing group of very hard-working activists, and the problems they face are—first of all, if they experience an injury and can’t work anymore, it’s a loss of self; it’s a loss of identity. And then to be told, “No, you haven’t been injured” or “We’re going to deem that you can be a parking lot attendant” after having a good job is extremely demoralizing.

Now, finding a doctor: We know that the waiting list for doctors in Thunder Bay has as many as 2,000 people on each list, so it’s extremely difficult. But in addition to that, the WSIB has created a policy where it does not listen to the doctors of those who have been injured. Instead, it chooses to listen to doctors who never actually meet the people—it’s done over the phone—and they deem that they are not permanently injured. So it is a massive crisis for people who receive permanent injuries on the job, and then if they’re put on ODSP, well, there is no housing.

Social housing lineups are also very, very deep. And frankly, social housing has not been maintained and funded to be maintained for a very long time, and so it’s actually quite dangerous if you wind up living in social housing. It shouldn’t be. We have fantastic co-operative housing in Thunder Bay that should be a model for the entire province, and that is the best place for people with disabilities to live. However, they have a seven-year waiting list.

I’d like to congratulate the member from Guelph for his recent re-election. I wanted to address his remarks on the topic of health care, because he’s saying that our budget is not addressing health care issues in Ontario and I couldn’t disagree more. In fact, yesterday I received an email from the CNO in my inbox and it reads, “CNO Sets New Record for Registering Internationally Educated Nurses.

“As of June 21, 2022, the number of new internationally educated registrants reached 3,967—a 132% increase compared to this time last year.

“‘This record marks the sixth consecutive year of increasing registrations for internationally educated nurses,’ says Carl Timmings, CNO’s acting executive director and chief executive officer.”

My question to the member is, what is his suggestion to increasing our health care? Because on this side of the House we have a multi-pronged approach through internationally trained nurses, through giving free education to PSWs, to increasing the standards of care to four hours a day in long-term care. What are his suggestions? Because so far, all we’re hearing is complaints but no tangible solutions.

Thank you very much and congratulations to my good friend on your re-election. Keep up the good work. I’ve got a couple of softball questions for you because I know you’re probably a little tired from the election. Do you support Highway 413, and if you don’t, why? Do you support Bill 124, and if you don’t, why? Why do you think this government will not repeal Bill 124? And my understanding is, because I’m not always correct, inflation was running at 8%, their raises are capped at 1% and that’s a pay cut to our most important nurses—not just nurses; paramedics, corrections officers, education workers—a pay cut of 7%. Why do you think this government will not support repealing Bill 124?

It’s always an honour to rise in the House and today, to participate in the debate on Bill 2, the government’s budget bill.

Speaker, since the budget was first introduced back in April, there have been significant changes in the province of Ontario that are not reflected in the new budget the government has presented. First, we are facing an unprecedented health human resource capacity issue that is not addressed in the re-introduced budget. Second, inflation and housing costs are especially hitting the most vulnerable, especially those on Ontario Works and Ontario disability support, making it impossible for them to pay the bills while living in legislated poverty, and the government has failed to address that. And third, the costs of the climate emergency are escalating. We had a city in Ontario, the city of Ottawa, go without power for weeks because our infrastructure is not ready for the hammer blows of the climate emergency, and the budget fails to make the necessary investments to address that.

I want to start with health care. Speaker, the budget talks about buildings and beds. It doesn’t talk about the people who deliver care. If the government truly wants to address the health care crisis, they need to repeal Bill 124 and allow nurses and other front-line health care workers to negotiate fair wages, fair benefits and better working conditions.

Instead of talking about privatization, let’s actually invest in our public health care system. The bottom line is the province of Ontario spends less per capita on health care than any province in the country. No wonder the system is in crisis, especially when the government underspent their health care budget by $1.8 billion last year.

Speaker, people with disabilities are being forced to live in legislated poverty. Poverty costs this province $33 billion a year, so it’s not only the right and moral thing to do to bring people out of poverty, it’s the right thing to do for the fiscal health of our province. Homelessness and poverty are putting huge pressure on our health care system, which is why so many health care leaders are saying they want to write prescriptions to end poverty and end homelessness. This budget fails to do that.

Finally, instead of spending billions on highways to go to million-dollar homes that people can’t afford, let’s build climate-ready communities that are affordable, livable—where people can people can live, work, play and shop locally.

Over two years ago, the Ontario Greens put forward a retention and recruitment strategy to deal with the health human resource capacity crisis we’re facing. I don’t know why it’s taken the government so long to finally start to act. There are between 15,000 and 20,000 internationally trained health care providers, according to the RNAO. They’ve been pushing the government to fast-track their accreditation. It’s fantastic that there are now 3,967, but if we had started this two years ago, what about the 15,000 to 20,000 who could be working in our emergency rooms right now, taking pressure off of the system? What about paying nurses’ wages so we don’t have to spend millions on private agencies when we could be hiring full-time permanent nurses?

Speaker, there are many solutions, and it starts by supporting publicly funded, publicly delivered health care in this province.

On Highway 413: I don’t understand how any government can call themselves fiscally responsible and spend $10 billion to $12 billion on a highway that all the independent experts say will save 30 to 60 seconds. It will pave over 2,000 acres of prime farmland. And I want to remind the members opposite: The food and farming sector in this province contributes $50 billion to the province’s GDP, employing over 880,000 people in this province. Why would we pave over the asset base of all that prosperity and all of those jobs, especially at a time when global geopolitical events and climate-fuelled droughts are driving up food prices? If we want to keep food prices low in this province, let’s protect farmland and let’s support the local farmers and the local supply chains that feed people in our communities.

Further debate?

Mr. Speaker, it’s always a pleasure to rise in the House to speak about what our government is doing to support hard-working Ontarians. The plan to build is the blueprint to prosperity, with ministries coming together with a common goal to build a better Ontario—in post-COVID times, a stronger, prosperous Ontario. Mr. Speaker, I call this “Team Prosperity.”

The budget is about how we are ensuring that Ontario is the best place to live, work, raise a family and thrive. In the last four years under the leadership of Premier Ford, we’ve seen—and I was attentively listening to the member from Peterborough–Kawartha when he was reading the petition. He talked about creating an environment where the government has delivered an estimated $8.9 billion in cost savings and support for Ontario employers. Then he talked about hard work and good policies, building an environment for economic growth. Because of that, we have actually attracted over $12 billion in new investment in electrical hybrid vehicles, including Canada’s first full-scale electrical vehicle battery plant in Windsor.

Mr. Speaker, these are some of the things that we do, and the results are obvious. The results are in terms of how when we started in 2018 and when we finished the first term in 2022, there were 500,000 new cheques and new opportunities for families across the province. That’s what was the result was out of that.

Last week, I remember that all of us—most of us on this side—were at AMO, the municipalities conference. We had an opportunity to meet many municipalities, so I just want to take a moment and thank the municipalities that I had the opportunity to meet, including Bonnechere Valley Mayor Jennifer Murphy, Mayor Sandy Brown and councillor Joe Andrews from the town of Orangeville, Mayor Barb Clumpus from the municipality of Meaford, Mayor Bonnie Crombie from my city of Mississauga–Malton and Mayor Brian Bigger from the city of Greater Sudbury.

Mr. Speaker, when we were there, as I was listening attentively to them, they were applauding the efforts that we’ve done and talking about the issue which the majority of them were talking about: the shortage of labour and more opportunities for the skilled trades. That’s something which, when I was thinking about what I should talk about today—because in this plan or this budget we’re talking about, there’s a lot of things that it has and a lot of things we can unpack.

But what I want to talk about is something that resonates with me as an immigrant who landed on January 15, 2000, and started my first full-time job as a lab technician, as a worker. I had an opportunity to get the micro-credentials. I went back to school, so I know the value of the skilled trades. I know the value of training and how this benefitted me. So I thought what I would be focusing on today would be employee training and skills development, areas overseen by the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skill Development. These areas are a critical part of Ontario’s pathway to a more prosperous future, as well.

Mr. Speaker, what we’re doing in this budget is that we are actually making an investment of $89.5 million in Employment Ontario over the next three years. This will assist in Ontario’s economic recovery. Then, along with this, as I said earlier, when we created this environment, which has attracted a lot of investment, it increased the number of jobs that have been created. But another thing we have seen is that at this moment, as we’re talking, there are over 350,000 jobs that are unfilled. As we all know, each one of them is a paycheque waiting to be collected, and that’s something which, through this project, we want to address as well.

Things that we’re doing—there are multiple tools. The first tool which I will really talk about is addressing the problem through immigration. We have a program called the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program. In this budget, we are making a historic investment to fund and develop this program. What’s going to happen is this investment will allow the program to meet and exceed integrity requirements for its immigrant nominee targets as set by the federal government and position us for continued growth.

I just want to draw every member’s attention to this: At this time, through the OINP program, we are receiving 9,000 immigrants, and if you really look at the total number of immigrants who come to Ontario, it’s about 200,000. So if you really do the math, it is about 4.5% of the immigrants we get, the province has a say in that. When you take a look at the contrast just next door, in Quebec, wherein it is about 52% of the immigrants, the Quebec provincial program has a say in it. So if you really put these together, all I’m trying to say is that we need to have more say, and our ask is very simple and small. Our Premier and the Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development are continuously advocating to the federal Liberal government to increase the number of immigrants we get, wherein we have a say. From 4.5%—we’re not asking for 50% or 52%—we’re just saying from 4.5% to 9%. That is equal to 18,000.

At this time, I will urge all the members, whenever you meet and see your member of Parliament, who has a seat and a say with the Prime Minister, ask them to support it. Why? Because it is the right thing to do. We know, by having those people and getting them here, getting them to fill those jobs, that they’re actually able to contribute more to the government. Thereby, we will be able to contribute more to society through service. I think what is good for them is good for Ontario. So I will encourage, again, one more time—I would appreciate, all of us, every time you meet with your member of Parliament, please do share this story with them.

Talking about the OINP program, what we’re doing at our own end: We are making a robust online application system, added 26 full-time employees and investing $4 million more in the program so that we are able to welcome newcomers with the skills we need to build our province. As I said earlier, we are facing a historic labour shortage. With these measures and investments, I’m glad to see that we are on a mission to build a better Ontario.

Some of the other things which we’re doing: There’s another one called Better Jobs Ontario, wherein we’re investing $5 million in the Ontario Workers’ Plan, which will allow for workers to upgrade their skills and find good jobs. Under this program, the applicants—including the self-employed, gig workers, youth and newcomers—will be eligible to get up to $500 per week in financial support for basic living expenses. This program will pay up to $28,000 if you take short-duration micro-credential courses for job-specific training.

Another thing which I quickly would like to add—I know time is flying—is about the OYAP program. The name stands for Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program. Skilled trades are so important that we are starting to reach out to our youth while they’re at school. The OYAP program is a specialized program for high school students to explore apprenticeship and consider careers in skilled trades. I would encourage, again, all the members to reach out to the high schools in your own riding. This is a great program. You’re able to support those young leaders for the future.

Another program, another tool which I want to talk about is the Skills Development Fund, wherein we’re investing about $34.8 million in the Skilled Trades Strategy, along with programs like the Hammer Heads. Along with the other over 140 successful organizations, the Hammer Heads Program was created by the Central Ontario Building Trades in 2009 to support at-risk youth. It is a skill- and employment-based training within the construction industry. As we all know, there are over 100,000 jobs in the construction industry which are unfilled as we are speaking. What it does is it brings these at-risk youths with the specific training in the skilled trades and gets them job-ready.

These are some of the things that we are doing, Mr. Speaker, in this budget. Our government is making these investments because it is what people in our province need to thrive. This budget outlines our government’s priorities and continues the legacy of our government, which is creating for the workers. I want to say, let’s work together to make Ontario the best place in the world to live, work, raise a family and thrive. Let’s seize the opportunity to grow. I encourage everyone: Let’s support this budget.

I would like to congratulate my colleague from Mississauga–Malton on his re-election. I think the residents of Mississauga–Malton made the right choice, and the commitment that the member brings will serve them well.

I want to touch upon the major investment that Bill 2 is doing in health care. We have seen some of these commitments in the Scarborough area, especially in Scarborough–Agincourt, and I’m sure that the residents of Scarborough will immensely benefit from this investment. But can the member elaborate more on how those major investments in health care will keep Ontario safe and open?

Questions?

I enjoyed my member across the way here, his comments especially when it comes to labour and when it comes to the shortage of labour in this province. Whether you’re in Mississauga–Malton or in Elgin–Middlesex–London, we have a labour crisis in this province.

I would ask the member, through you, sir, how do you see Bill 2 helping alleviate that dilemma in this province and the labour shortage that we have?

Mr. Speaker, through you to the member opposite from London–Fanshawe, thank you for bringing that important thing. You definitely talked about the clog in the system at the OINP program. That’s exactly what we’ve done: We have moved on to the online tool that we are using right now with an additional 26 employees. Full-time employees have been added on so that we can take care of those issues.

Definitely, I understand and agree with you that we need to do more because at this time, we have over 350,000 jobs being unfilled. We need more immigrants to fulfill those jobs. Thank you for the question.

I always say this, Mr. Speaker: People need jobs and jobs need people. But what is the missing link between the two is the skill set required for the people to do those jobs, and this is exactly what this bill is doing: helping and supporting those Ontarians to get those skills and fill those jobs. Those jobs are extremely important. When they bring in a cheque, they’re not only bringing financial stability to themselves; they’re actually contributing to our society.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you, member, for the wonderful question.

My thoughts are always with those families of those who have been injured in a workplace accident, and those who have in fact passed due to a workplace incident. Mr. Speaker, I truly believe everyone deserves to come home after a hard day’s work. One life lost is too many, in fact. This is why I truly believe that we have a responsibility at our ministry. Our government is making sure it’s doing everything in its power to keep workers safe, and this includes boots on the ground. Today and tomorrow, we actually have—that’s the reason we actually had invested heavily through Working for Workers Acts 1 and 2, and hiring a lot of those inspectors, as well.

So to the member opposite, I want to assure you that we are a government that works for the workers. The health and safety of our Ontarian workers will always be a top priority.

Talking about health care, Mr. Speaker, our government continues to ensure that its health care system is prepared to respond to any crisis and protect the health and well-being of the people of Ontario. We are investing an additional $3.3 billion in 2022-23, bringing the total additional investment in the hospitals to $8.8 billion since 2018-19.

The member talked about the investment; we are actually building up a hospital in Brampton. We are redeveloping a hospital in Mississauga with Trillium Health Partners. These are critical investments, and to build on the 10,600 health care workers added to the system since the winter of 2020, the government is investing a vital $230 million in 2022-23 to enhance the existing program.

Mr. Speaker, we believe the health of Ontarians is our top priority. We are investing into it. We will keep investing the important, vital dollars into this health care system.

Thank you to the member from Mississauga–Malton on his debate on the Plan to Build Act (Budget Measures). He talked a lot about the Ontario nomination immigration program, which I really appreciate because at one point I was a critic on that file. I remember back when the Auditor General actually did a report on that and how that ministry really needed to be corrected and fixed. So I’d be interested to find out if some of those recommendations under that Auditor General’s report were actually fixed, while we are now talking about bringing more nominees into the province, which we all want. We want to see them thrive and build our workforce, because we do need that. We don’t have enough population in Ontario to continue that. So that is one of the things I urge you to look at and find out: As you’re asking for more immigration and nominees to come, have those problems been fixed in the Auditor General’s recommendations?

There was also a question I had—I get oftentimes emails about the delays of the nomination program in Ontario. Can you speak to that, about how that’s being repaired?

A quick question, the member for Hamilton West–Ancaster–Dundas.

Thank you to the member opposite for that question.

The question is, how are we making sure to keep Ontario open? What is our plan to keep Ontario open? So that’s what I’m going to talk about. What we’re doing is—Ontario’s progress against COVID-19 has been hard-fought. Our province has fared well compared to the other places.

I want to say thank you for the tireless efforts of our health care workers on the front line and for your everyday sacrifices.

Again, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks for giving me the—

Thank you for your debate here today. You talked about health care, and you said that your government is ready to respond to any emergency. But the people of Ontario need to know that you underspent your own health care budget by $1.8 billion. You underspent what you planned to spend, in a health care crisis.

In Hamilton, we’ve had already, to date, 200 code zero events where there is no ambulance available to respond to an emergency; that’s double the number for all of 2021, so far this year. We heard from the member from Niagara Falls, who had a constituent who called for an ambulance through Life Line, was told she had to wait six hours, only to have a taxi cab sent to her home. This is really not a situation where you’re responding to emergencies.

The health care system is in crisis. People need to be able to rely on ambulances when they have an emergency. What is your government going to do to make sure there are no more code zeroes in the province of Ontario?

I’m happy to have this opportunity today to rise and speak about the budget on behalf of my constituents in Ottawa West–Nepean.

Ontario is facing multiple crises right now. Our health care system is collapsing around us. The rapid increase in the cost of living is hurting working families, forcing them to cut down on essentials and, in some cases, to choose between food and rent. Poverty is increasing. Visits to food banks are increasing. Homelessness is increasing. We see it in our ridings and communities every day, urban and rural. We have a system right now that is letting the majority of Ontarians down.

This budget was a chance for the government to meet the moment and address these challenges, Speaker. They have failed. There is nothing to fix the health care crisis, nothing to fix the cost-of-living crisis that is hurting so many families, nothing to fix the housing crisis that is making it so hard to find a place to call home and pushing so many people out onto our streets.

Budgets are moral documents; they show our government’s priorities. One thing this government and this Premier have been consistent about is that their priority is their wealthy and well-connected buddies, not ordinary Ontarians, not vulnerable seniors, not people living in poverty, not people with disabilities, not our health care workers and not Ontarians who need to call an ambulance or go to the emergency room—what a lost opportunity to help those who need help the most.

This budget is essentially the same one that was tabled just a few months ago. However, since then, our situation in Ontario has significantly changed. Our health care system—which was already under stress, and let’s be honest, should have received significant investment already back in April—is collapsing after years of being underfunded and ignored.

Our health care heroes who got us through COVID have been so worn down by this government, so disrespected and so poorly compensated that they are now leaving the profession, switching to agency work or cutting down on shifts. It’s not because they don’t want to be nurses working in our public hospitals—they absolutely do—but the mistreatment they’ve suffered, the conditions they’ve been forced to work in every day, and the significant cut in wages that they’ve endured with a 1% wage cap when inflation is over 8%, have led many of them to leave.

This significant increase in inflation is affecting everyone, Speaker. People across the province are being squeezed when they go to the grocery store or pay their bills. Prices are exploding and working people are the ones paying the bills. As I’ve knocked on doors over the past year and talked to thousands of constituents, I’ve heard again and again the struggles that people are facing because incomes aren’t keeping up with prices. Everybody is feeling the squeeze.

So does this budget do anything to address these problems? Absolutely not. This is a stay the course, nothing is wrong, everything is fine budget that maintains the status quo. No problems to see here. But that isn’t true, that’s not what I hear from folks across Ottawa West–Nepean every day. It’s not what I see when I go to the grocery store or fill up my tank. It’s not reflective of reality.

The Premier and his government seem to be living in a different reality than my constituents. This is an Alice in Wonderland budget, Speaker, where up is down and wrong is right. They keep on saying there are record amounts of money going into our health care system, but no one on the ground can see it as they wait 12 hours for care at the Queensway Carleton Hospital.

They say they’re building record amounts of new housing, but McMansions that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars aren’t affordable for everyday Ontarians, and they’re certainly not providing any help to my constituents earning minimum wage or on social assistance.

This was an opportunity for the Premier to show that he understood the problems that we are facing and to do something about it. Now, it’s those who can least afford it who are being asked to pay the price for the Premier’s inaction.

Take the health care crisis for instance. People are waiting 12 hours to be seen at the emergency room at the Queensway Carleton Hospital. The Queensway Carleton staff, meanwhile, are trying to deal with a situation where some days there are more patients in the ER who have been admitted but are waiting for a bed in the hospital than there are beds in the ER. Patients are receiving emergency care in the hallway and in the waiting room. Only 60% of the hospital’s surgical capacity is being used even though we have this massive backlog of surgeries and procedures because there are no nurses to assist the surgeons.

And if you call 911 in Ottawa, Speaker, there’s a good chance you may be waiting several hours for an ambulance. The number of hours where there is no ambulance available at all in the entire city is increasing.

I spoke to one constituent this spring who called an ambulance because of chest pain and dizziness. She waited two hours, worrying the entire time that she would die before the ambulance got there. Her daughter finally came and collected her and took her to the ER. If we don’t do something about this soon, someone is going to die before the ambulance gets there.

Our nurses and doctors and other health care workers are so burnt out. They were here for us during the height of the COVID pandemic. They fought for us and now it’s time for us to pay them back and be there for them when they need it. I know how hard they work because I’ve needed emergency care myself over the past few years thanks to long COVID. I saw how hard these folks work day after day, the personal sacrifices they make to ensure that people like me get the care they need even when the emergency room was packed and there was only one doctor on shift and not enough nurses. But they’ve gotten no respect and no help from this government.

If the government wants to start showing that they are taking this crisis seriously, they could start by repealing Bill 124. They could start implementing the recommendations of the Ontario Nurses’ Association and the Ontario Medical Association. These are the experts. They’re the ones on the front line every day—not the Premier, not the health minister. These people, who save countless lives of Ontarians every day, they’re the ones who know the true needs of our health care system.

When we talk about numbers in the budget, we forget at our peril that budgets are about people. They’re about what happens every day to people in Ontario. And the decisions within budgets can have massive consequences for people. I hear it every day from my constituents, so I want to share some experiences that illustrate the human cost of this do-nothing budget for people across Ontario so that the government can understand how their lack of action is hurting people.

Sherry, a constituent in my riding of Ottawa West–Nepean, reached out to my office because she’s extremely worried about the state of our health care system. Recently, she had to take her 92-year-old mother-in-law to the ER at the Queensway Carleton Hospital. After waiting hours to be seen, her mother-in-law was finally taken in for a CT scan. The results of the scan were inconclusive so she was sent home with the impression that everything would be okay. After two days of not eating or drinking anything, it was obvious that there was something seriously wrong.

Sherry took her mother-in-law back to the ER, this time at the Ottawa Hospital, where they waited seven hours before she was finally seen. She then spent two days in the ER, which she described as a nightmare, with incredible crowding and disgruntled patients waiting six to eight hours to be seen by a doctor. And when patients are admitted, there are no beds available for them. Just imagine waiting days and days for a bed in a little ER cubicle, with bright lights, the impossibility of sleep and the difficulty of obtaining food.

When Sherry’s mother-in-law had her second CT scan, they discovered lymphoma in the brain. After doing an MRI late in the afternoon, she was finally admitted to a room but had to shuffle between hospitals for the next five days while undergoing radiation treatment.

As the mother of a doctor, Sherry sees unequivocally that nurses and health care workers are suffering, and many are leaving the profession because this is just such a difficult time. They do not feel supported by this government.

Another constituent of mine, Peggy Mansyk, recently moved to Ottawa West–Nepean from Niagara with her husband. She was unable to get an appointment with a nephrologist to continue her husband’s care for his condition. When she booked two appointments to see the doctor in July, they were cancelled each time and she was then told that they would be unable to rebook an appointment this summer. Why? Because the clinic is too busy. Because there aren’t enough staff to see the volume of patients required. It will now have been over six months since Peggy’s husband has seen a nephrologist for his care, and they can’t get a family doctor either. The story is shocking and unacceptable, but unfortunately I hear similar stories every day.

Another constituent in my riding suffers from Crohn’s disease. As a result of complications, she has been hospitalized five times in the last two years. In January 2021 she was referred to a colorectal surgical group at the Ottawa Hospital. Because of the great deal of pain she was experiencing, she was eager to have this done as soon as possible. But her consultation was booked for six months later. However, shortly before the consultation she started feeling severe abdominal pain and was rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery to remove two thirds of her colon. Post-surgery her colon flared up, which resulted in another two-week stay at the hospital. She was booked for another surgery in February 2022 to have the rest of the diseased colon taken out, but again it was delayed and rescheduled for April of this year.

Two months later, while visiting family in BC, she was hospitalized once again because of a post-surgical infection and internal abscess. She was treated with antibiotics and told to consult with her health care team once she returned to Ottawa. She was also told to keep an eye on her symptoms for anything similar and that she would need to go straight to the ER if anything similar happened.

Now, with recent ER closures in the Ottawa area, she’s living with the constant fear of being unable to access the health care she needs if she finds herself in an emergency once again. It is also very likely she will need another major surgery in the next few years, but is quite concerned about when that surgery might be scheduled, given the state of hospitals in Ottawa, and what impact this might have on her care.

A key point that I need to make, Speaker, is that the privatization of our health care system that the Premier wants to force on Ontario will only make matters worse. The health minister just announced this morning that the government’s response to our crisis is going to be privatization. What does this mean for Ontarians? It means, instead of getting the quality health care services you deserve through an efficient and highly professional public system, you’ll have to get worse care for more money. Health care costs will soar because middlemen investors will now be pocketing profits on top. The only people that benefit from this will be shareholders making more money at the expense of taxpayers.

Let’s deal with the argument being parroted by the government that outsourcing and privatization will lead to shorter wait times. They absolutely do not. In fact, what is already happening—and if this government’s plan is pushed through, it will get even worse—is that the crisis of short staffing will continue. The public system will bleed doctors, nurses and other health care workers away to the private system. We will continue to have a chronically understaffed public system that lacks the resources it needs to serve the public.

Will the private system that is being foisted on Ontarians serve the public with higher-quality service? Absolutely not. Wait times won’t go down, but private shareholders will make more money. This isn’t scaremongering, because we have a clear example of what a private, everyone-for-themselves health care system looks like. It’s the system used by our neighbour to the south, which is consistently ranked as having some of the worst health outcomes of any Western country. In fact, it is often used as an example of what a health care system shouldn’t look like because it leads to high costs for patients, poor health care services and a huge amount of money for private companies, who make extraordinary profits at the expense of working and middle-class families.

The evidence is clear: Privatized health care leads to poor services. Just look at our long-term-care system and what happened there during the pandemic and what continues to happen to our seniors, persons with disabilities and loved ones living in long-term care. Companies like Chartwell homes put profit and their shareholders before people. Shame on them, and shame on a government that wants to do the same thing to our health care system that they did to our long-term-care system.

Let’s also talk about the cost-of-living and affordability crisis that is hurting families in my riding of Ottawa West–Nepean. Again, this budget does nothing for them. It has nothing in it to protect working people from the rapidly rising price of groceries and rent, with inflation devastating families’ purchasing power. This is a do-nothing budget.

One of the biggest problems we are facing is that large corporations are now using inflation as an excuse to gouge working people. The oil and grocery companies are making record amounts, yet you don’t see gas or groceries coming down. Where in this budget are measures to make these companies accountable to Ontarians? They are nowhere.

For working people and families, this means that every month their paycheques lose more and more of their buying power. This is forcing families to choose between basic necessities, pushing back getting their car repaired, not being able to sign up their kids for a summer camp, not sure if they’re going to be able to get their kids’ school supplies this year.

Everyone, not just those on low incomes, is having to cut back on their grocery shopping. For those on Ontario Works and ODSP, it’s even worse. They have now officially been legislated into poverty. A 5% rise only for those on ODSP is an insult to those who have already been pushed to the brink. They face a situation that’s gone from bad to worse. This will mean that seniors and children are going hungry and homeless. That will be this budget’s legacy and record: profit for those at the top and cuts in real terms for everybody else.

On housing, this government’s answer is simple: give developers more money and let them build more unaffordable McMansions. That doesn’t do anything for my constituents who are struggling to get by. They are being exploited by predatory landlords, with their rights and protections increasingly eroded and disregarded by a Premier who cares more about developers making money than actually fixing the housing crisis and building genuinely affordable homes. I’m hearing stories every day from vulnerable constituents who are paying the price for this government’s inaction.

To give you just one example, a constituent in my riding has been in contact with my office with concerns about safety in her community and a request to transfer housing. She is pleading for help. This constituent has been targeted because of her advocacy for LGBTQ2+ rights in her community, and she is a survivor of multiple assaults. After a recent midday shooting in her small community, she has requested a transfer with Ottawa Community Housing and has been listed on the urgent safety priority list.

Speaker, the current wait-list for urgent safety transfers with OCH is averaging two and a half years. Non-urgent transfers are up to eight years.

This constituent has stated that she is overwhelmed with stress because of the fear for her safety, and incredibly concerned for her mother’s health, who was recently diagnosed with stage 3 lung cancer. She is on Ontario Works and cannot afford to leave community housing because rent in Ottawa is simply unaffordable. She needs the transfer, but fears the harm that the stress will cause both herself and her mother if she has to wait another two and a half years before she gets one.

I hear stories from constituents every day about the unending wait-lists. In Ottawa alone, 500 families are living in motels, including children, because there just isn’t enough affordable and safe housing for them to access. That means parents washing their children’s clothes in the bathtub. It means the only option to prepare food is a microwave. Just imagine 500 families living in these conditions. This is a disgrace. This government should be doubling both Ontario Works and ODSP rates so that people can actually afford to live in this province.

I urge the government to go back to the drawing board and to come up with a plan that will actually address the challenges facing Ontario. It’s not too late to save our public health care system. It’s not too late to help people living in poverty or experiencing homelessness. It’s not too late to support people with disabilities. It’s not too late to invest in genuinely affordable housing. It’s not too late for the government to side with ordinary Ontarians and the issues that matter most to them. Thank you.

I’m very pleased with some of the comments the member is bringing to the floor of the Legislature, particularly from the perspective of her riding. That’s really important and key, and it’s a reminder to all members. It’s so important for us to learn from each other by bringing those stories.

I want to bring some stories from my area of Algoma–Manitoulin. Our seniors across this province, and in northern Ontario, many of them are on fixed incomes. They’re very limited as far as what they’re getting on their pensions. They budget everything to the last penny that they spend every month. The increases in gas that they’ve experienced in order to get to and from either Sudbury or Sault Ste. Marie in getting to a doctor’s appointment has had an impact on their budget. The small increase they received on their CPP has now made them ineligible—by $40—to get dental coverage and others now, the big whammy that’s really hit them, have received a 25% increase on their propane costs where they’ve done everything to try to eliminate the high cost of hydro.

I’d like to hear from you what seniors in your area are experiencing?

I listened intently to our new member from Ottawa West–Nepean and her comments on the budget. One thing I think a lot of people don’t understand is what really the dangers of privatization are in the health care system. Why a contract nurse is so much more expensive to the system than nurses employed in the public system. Can you please elaborate on what that extra cost is?

Questions?

As a reminder, over 30,000 new long-term-care beds—shovels are in the ground now; 3,100 new hospital beds; 10,500 new health care workers since 2020; 5,000 new nurses being hired; 8,000 PSWs being hired; streamlining, bringing on internationally trained health care workers; tuition reimbursements for health care workers and nurses; training opportunities for health care workers. This budget is doing something for health care. Why does this opposition insist on opposing the policies to improve our health care system and address the high needs at this time?