I’d like to recognize our Cornwall Community Hospital Foundation for their inaugural Dancing with the CCH Stars event held on Saturday at Cornwall’s Aultsville Theatre. This fundraiser celebrated the exceptional care, tenacity, compassion and hard work of our local health care professionals who treat patients across SDG, Akwesasne and Cornwall.

Dozens of local businesses sponsored the event. Thank you to the many community-minded businesses that always step up. Success is not possible without the support of the business community.

The event sold out in less than two days, and guests were treated to high-quality entertainment.

Cornwall Community Hospital Foundation will purchase $50,000 worth of medical equipment for a special project chosen by the winning team.

I’d like to acknowledge the six teams of dancers who spent the last five months training with two local dance schools, Powell School of Dance and Studio C Dance School—talk about dedication:

—Dr. Akram Arab and Meghan Cafferky;

—Dr. Celine Lemire and Anthony Powell;

—Dr. Renee Givari and her husband, Tim;

—RNs Joy Cella and Amie McCosham, RPN Kathleen Jack and Dr. Leslie Stephens;

—Josée Amyot, RN, and Rhiannon St. Pierre; as well as

—Andrew Bissonnette and Robin Barillaro, both RNs at the hospital and at the college.

Congratulations to Dr. Akram Arab and his dance partner, Meghan Cafferky, who won the competition, with $50,000 going towards medical upgrades supporting critically ill patients at CCH’s ICU.

Huge congratulations to the Cornwall Community Hospital Foundation executive director, Amy Gillespie, and development coordinator, Kelsey Lindsay, on raising over $125,000.

I won’t, because the numbers in fact show that since 2018 we have increased health funding in the province of Ontario by $14 billion.

The Financial Accountability Officer is actually showing that the status quo doesn’t work and cannot work into the future. Imagine for a minute, Speaker, if we had a Liberal government—or an NDP government when they were in power—that decided not to close residency spots. In the case of the Liberal government, over 50 new physicians would be practising in the province of Ontario if they hadn’t made that decision in 2015.

We are making the investments. We are making those increases and I am incredibly proud of the work that we’ve been able to do in a very short period of time: 3,500 new hospital beds in the province of Ontario since we took power. Those beds are serving people safely, with caring and compassionate staff that will continue to be there when we need them.

We committed as a government to make sure that we were pre-pandemic for surgeries by the end of March. Because of health care workers and hospitals stepping up and making those investments, we actually achieved that goal earlier this month.

I am incredibly proud of the 50 new hospital builds, expansions and renovations that are happening right now in the province of Ontario. In Niagara, in Hamilton, in Ottawa, in Mississauga, we’re making those investments because we absolutely understand that we need to be prepared for a population that continues to grow in the province of Ontario, and an aging population.

We have invested and we will continue to invest because we want people to have access to those diagnostic opportunities and those surgical clinics in community. When we make those investments, we see hospitals and hospital workers stepping up and doing the right thing. And I have to highlight and congratulate Bluewater Health in Sarnia–Lambton: 10 new hospital specialist doctors are starting at Bluewater Health, and that’s the kind of investment where we see we are actually making a difference on the ground and in community.

I want to thank the thousands of people across Niagara who are signing this “Petition to Save the Welland Hospital Emergency Department.

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas the current Niagara Health system restructuring plan approved by the Ontario Ministry of Health includes removal of the emergency department and associated beds and ambulances service from the Welland hospital site once the Niagara Falls site is complete, creating inequity of hospital and emergency service in the Niagara region and a significant negative impact on hospital and emergency outcomes for the citizens of Welland, Port Colborne and all Niagara;

“Whereas the NHS is already experiencing a 911 crisis in EMS, a shortage of beds and unacceptable off-loading delays in its emergency departments across the region;

“Whereas the population in the Welland hospital catchment area is both aging and growing;

“Whereas the Ontario Legislature passed a motion by Niagara Centre MPP Jeff Burch on April 13, 2022, to include a full emergency department and associated beds in the rebuild of the Welland hospital;

“Therefore, be it resolved that we call on the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to work with the Ontario Ministry of Health and the Niagara Health system to implement motion 47 to maintain the Welland hospital emergency department and adjust its hospital plan accordingly.”

I sign my name and send it to the Clerk through the page.