My question is for the Premier. Speaker, it has come to my attention that cancer patients waiting for surgery right now at the Ottawa Hospital are being bumped by clients of the for-profit clinic that’s been operating on Saturdays at the Riverside Campus of the Ottawa Hospital. This for-profit clinic has been offering nurses double the wages they earn in our public hospital system, and that has had an impact on our public system’s ability to have the staff capacity ready for cancer surgeries for patients in urgent need. This is what I’m being told privately by hospital staff who fear the repercussions for speaking publicly.

Speaker, a very simple question to the Premier: Will they commit today to investigate this matter?

My question is for the Minister of Health. I hope the minister can help me understand something. Why is it that a group of orthopedic surgeons who work at the Ottawa Hospital in my riding had to form a private company in order to rent operating rooms at the hospital they work in, and then hire a private company to get surgical instruments and then hire nurses off-book? All this was just to address the surgical backlog that exists in the hospital they already work in.

Can the minister explain all this jumping through hoops instead of the Ottawa Hospital using the capacity that already exists within it?

I’m not sure I heard an answer in that, so maybe here’s the answer: Yesterday, the Deputy Minister of Health revealed that the $300 million earmarked for the surgical backlog had not been fully used. Or maybe it’s because Ontario has the lowest-paid nurses in all of Canada. Or maybe it’s because Bill 124 incentivized nurses and other health care professionals to leave our hospitals and go work for private companies.

Speaker, those operating rooms I spoke about have been dark on weekends for months—actually, probably years. How can that be? With all this government has to say about what they’re doing, how can that be? Speaker, in hospitals across the province, there are operating rooms that are dark simply because our hospitals don’t have the resources to use them to their full capacity, and the minister knows this.

Speaker, through you, can the minister tell us just how it is that we are not using operating rooms in our hospitals to their full capacity?

Error! Bookmark not defined.“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas Ontario has one of the most dedicated and highly trained health workforces in the world. Over 60,000 new nurses and 8,000 new doctors have registered to work in Ontario; and

“Whereas hiring more health care professionals is the most effective step to ensure Ontarians are able to see a health care provider where and when you need to; and

“Whereas starting in spring 2023, the government will expand the Learn and Stay grant and applications will open for eligible post-secondary students who enrol in priority programs, such as nursing, to work in underserved communities in the region where they studied after graduation. The program will provide up-front funding for tuition, books and other direct educational costs; and

“Whereas with new as-of-right rules, Ontario will become the first province in Canada to allow health care workers registered in other provinces and territories to immediately start caring for you, without having to first register with one of Ontario’s health regulatory colleges. This change will help health care workers overcome excessive red tape that makes it difficult for them to practise in Ontario;

“Whereas we are investing an additional $15 million to temporarily cover the costs of examination, application, and registration fees for internationally trained and retired nurses, saving them up to $1,500 each. This will help up to 5,000 internationally educated nurses and up to 3,000 retired nurses begin working sooner to strengthen our front lines;

“Therefore we, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as follows:

“To urge all members of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to continue to build on the progress of hiring and recruiting health care workers.”

I fully endorse this petition. I will sign my name to it and give it to page Claire.