It’s my pleasure to introduce Corey Scott to the Legislature. Corey is a bright young man with a keen interest in politics, and I’m pleased that I’ve hired him as my legislative assistant. So welcome, Corey, to the Legislature.

Mr. Speaker, I’m pleased to give this assembly an update with regard to a key piece of infrastructure in the riding of Essex. I’m speaking of course of Highway 3, which stretches from the southeast corner of the riding, near Kingsville, to the northwest corner of the riding, arriving eventually at the international crossing between Ontario and Michigan. I’m pleased to state that the government’s commitment to widen this highway to four lanes is ongoing and in full progress.

The four-lane expansion will make travelling safer for thousands of commuters who rely on Highway 3 for safe transportation. In addition, approximately 1,500 trucks per week, from food producers to greenhouse growers in the Kingsville area, rely on this key piece of infrastructure to reach the international border and markets in the United States.

Essex county residents are very pleased with this four-lane expansion and are looking forward to the completion of this key piece of infrastructure.

That concludes our members’ statements for this morning.

I recognize that everyone is enthusiastic about the visitors, just as I am. The prolonged standing ovation is eating into the time that we’re going to have. We only have a minute and forty-five seconds, and a number of members want to introduce guests. So if we could just keep the ovations to a minimum from now on, I think we’d all appreciate it.

Start the clock. Member from London North Centre.

I would like to thank some of my constituents here: Milton Hart and his son Matthew. Milton is the president of the Aurora Black Caucus, who I mentioned in my member’s statement today. Thank you for being here.

I’d like to introduce two members of my team, Jess Tan and Dianne Dance, who are both here at Queen’s Park in the members’ gallery. Welcome to Queen’s Park and thanks for your good work.

Applause.

Mr. Speaker, congratulations on your role as Speaker.

I would like to introduce Natalie, who is returning as a page from the great riding of Etobicoke–Lakeshore. Welcome, and I hope you have a great week here.

As a Steelworker, I’m very pleased to introduce two amazing Steelworkers. We have Will Foresi from USW Local 7135, Steel Car; and Sylvia Boyce, the Steelworkers District 6 health, safety and environment coordinator. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

Thank you, Speaker, and congratulations on your re-election.

It gives me great pleasure to introduce my brother, James Kernaghan, and his sons Darragh Kernaghan and Tiarnan Kernaghan, who recently celebrated a birthday. Unfortunately, Shauna and Ronan could not join us today. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

It is a profound privilege to be able to address this Legislature once more as the re-elected member for the great constituency of Eglinton–Lawrence. I am humbled by the opportunity to serve my constituents and the people of Ontario again, and I am extremely grateful to my dedicated campaign team and volunteers.

As we all know, our summers in Ontario are too short. While the people’s business calls us back to the Legislature for the remainder of the summer, I have enjoyed the opportunity in June and July to meet with many people in Eglinton–Lawrence and attend community events. As part of Toronto, of course, Eglinton–Lawrence is a community of diversity: diversity of culture, language and backgrounds, and these past weeks I have really had the pleasure of celebrating all that Eglinton–Lawrence has to offer.

For example, I was inspired at graduations in June celebrating the future of our province with graduates from Dante Alighieri and the Yorkdale Adult Learning Centre. I attended the Columbus Centre for a Ballo Liscio and Sagra della Salsiccia, both of which involved lively outdoor dancing, and I attended the 110th anniversary of the lawn bowling and croquet club and also local barbeques such as those put on by the Shermount condominium.

I thank the organizers for including me in their celebrations, and I look forward to serving the people of Eglinton–Lawrence and thank them for putting their faith in me once more.

I’d like to introduce Zoe Bystrov from the riding of Barrie–Innisfil and the founder of Youth for Lake Simcoe. Welcome, Zoe.

Applause.

Mr. Speaker, welcome back. I’d like to introduce the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation’s president, Karen Littlewood, and OSSTF legislative observer Paul Kossta, who are here with us today.

Also, I’d like to welcome Matthew Sawaya, Leo Lacroix, Frida Evans and Lourdes David—volunteers from my campaign. Thanks so much for being here. Welcome to Queen’s Park, everyone.

Applause.

I am pleased to welcome from Durham today: Trevor Hume; Greg Rowden; Larry Reynolds; Glenn Baswick; Cearra Howey; Scott Howey; Randy Farmer; Cris Douglas; Karey Anne Large; and my wife of 35 years, Kathy McCarthy.

Applause.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. You pre-empted me a little bit on one of the visitors we have here today, but I also want to welcome my family: my wife, Kim; and my five kids: Jaxon, Maverick, Emeric, Gemma—she just ducked down; she’s hiding—and Ryder. We don’t usually get to see them all here at once.

Interjections.

Applause.

Speaker, congratulations on your election. On the first day of the Legislature, the Ontario Nurses’ Association is here. I would like introduce their president, Cathryn Hoy, as well as Nour Alideeb and Angela Preocanin. Welcome to Queen’s Park, ladies.

Applause.

Thank you. The supplementary question.

Through you, Mr. Speaker: First of all, I want to welcome everyone back. It’s going to be an exciting session over the next little while. Also, again, I want to acknowledge the former Premier—what a great Premier, Premier Harris was.

Mr. Speaker, I will tell you what we’re doing to fix the situation we’re facing in health care. We’re fast-tracking more health care workers by directing the College of Physicians and Surgeons, along with the College of Nurses, to quickly approve the credentials of internationally trained health care workers. This builds on the 760 internationally trained nurses already deployed. In four years, as the Liberals were firing nurses—to be exact, 1,600 nurses—we’re actually hiring and we have hired 14,579 net new nurses. On top of that, we have hired over 10,500 health care workers through the COVID emergency staffing programs. We’ve also—

I’ll give you one example. We introduced the learn and stay grant for graduating nurses, so we will be taking care of their tuition and any cost if they serve in an underserved area. We’re going to focus on that. As I mentioned, we’re also investing another $342 million to add 5,000 more nurses to the system. If there were 5,000 nurses that could fly from the sky, we would be hiring them tomorrow. We’re coming up with solutions. We launched the largest medical school expansion in over 10 years—160 undergraduates along with 295 postgraduates. This is what we’re doing to make sure that we take care of the health care system.

We’re always going to make sure we’re there for our nurses. They do a spectacular job. We’ll always have their backs. But I understand they need to have more support, and that’s what we’re going to give them. We’re going to give them another 5,000 more colleagues. We’re going to pour money into the health care system, as we have. We’ve added billions and billions of dollars compared to the health care system four years ago that the NDP and the Liberals absolutely destroyed.

Again to the Premier: Families in each of these communities saw their ERs and urgent care centres close because they didn’t have enough nurses, PSWs or health care workers to treat patients. It’s clear to me and most Ontarians that we are in a crisis. But just a few days ago, the Minister of Health said it’s not a crisis.

How bad does it have to be before the minister and the Premier take action on the solutions that nurses and health care workers are proposing, take action to make sure we can deal with the crisis in our health care system?

This question is for the Premier.In July, I shared an internal memo from Toronto Western Hospital, frantically trying to keep their emergency department open. They narrowly avoided that closure that time, but they were just one of 25 hospitals across this province facing emergency room closures on a single weekend. From our smallest community health centres to our busiest urban hospitals, our system is being pushed to the breaking point while this government’s budget remains status quo. Speaker, to the Premier: How many more ERs and urgent care centres have to close before he finally admits this is a crisis?

Speaker, can the minister explain what she considers acceptable for a child to get emergency care? Is it 19 hours? Is it 11 hours? How is that even remotely acceptable?

I had an ER nurse from my community tell me just yesterday that the ICU they work in is at full capacity with only half the staff to care for a full roster of patients.

How can the Premier look our exhausted and demoralized nurses in the eye—those health care workers who are desperately ringing the alarm on staffing shortages—and tell them that Bill 124 is here to stay?

It’s an honour to be able to rise today and talk about this very important issue. In our throne speech yesterday, we mentioned that we will build a health system that better cares for patients and keeps our province open. We are doing that with all of the partners, which is why I have met with the Ontario nurses’ union and I have met with the College of Nurses to say we need to expedite internationally trained nurses who are in the province of Ontario here today and waiting for those licences. We will continue to do that. We will work with all partners, including hospital CEOs, to make sure that when they need support to get the health care workers in emergency departments, they will be there and their government has their back.