My question is to the Minister of Health. After spending weeks in hiding, avoiding accountability, the government is downplaying what Ontario Health is calling an unprecedented hospital staffing shortage. Grand River Hospital in Waterloo region was recently forced to close an operating room and postpone elective surgeries because 120 staff members were off with COVID-19. According to Health Quality Ontario, as of April, half of the hospitals whose average ER wait times top the provincial average were in Waterloo region. That average is over 19 hours waiting in an emergency room.

When will this government stop normalizing this grave position our health care system is in and start listening to health care professionals’ calls to action? Everything is not okay.

If this government was actually concerned about the urgency of what is happening in our health care system, they would listen to the ONA; they would listen to the RNAO and other groups of health care professionals and you would repeal Bill 124. Instead, the Minister of Health says repealing Bill 124 “is a conversation for another day.” That is a direct quote. Well, we think that day is right now. That day is today. Why is this government actively preventing nurses and other health care workers from being fairly compensated in our system?

My question is to the Minister of Health. Our public health care system is in crisis because this government refuses to respect and protect our front-line health care workers, like Ashley and Laureen right in St. Paul’s—and the Ashleys and Laureens across Ontario. Our nurses are run off their feet. Their mental and physical health is crumbling. The official opposition; ONA, here today; RNAO; nurses in my riding; patients have sent this government solutions, and we have been ignored.

My question is to the minister: Will this Conservative government repeal Bill 124 and help save our public health care system and the lives of our nurses and their patients once and for all? Will you?

My question is back to the minister: Will you stop the privatization—yes, the privatization—of health care by investing in public sector workers, patients and families and repealing Bill 124? It’s what we’re all asking for. Forget about the official opposition; ONA is asking for it, nurses and patients. Yes or no, will you repeal Bill 124?