Good morning, Speaker. Happy International Women’s Day.

Another day, another report showing this government’s complete failure to address Ontario’s health care needs. At nearly every turn, this government chose not to help Ontarians when they needed it most.

Today’s report from the independent Financial Accountability Office shows that this government could have kept people—107,000 people—from waiting in pain. They could have protected our loved ones in long-term care. They could have kept emergency rooms open for when people so desperately needed them—and, Speaker, there were 145 unplanned emergency room closures last year. This government chose not to.

Speaker, to the Premier: Will the Premier admit his government underfunded health care as an excuse to sell it off?

Interjections.

So my question to the Premier, again, is, will this government abandon their plans to divert public dollars away from our hospitals and into the hands of private shareholders?

The Conservatives can say that nobody is going to have to pay for health care. They’re praying that their plan is going to work, but this report tells a different story—and they have a terrible track record, Speaker. Why should anybody trust them? Because after all, this is the same government that said they’d never carve up the greenbelt. They said there was going to be no crisis in health care and that they’d never privatize it.

The people of this province deserve a government they can trust to put their needs first. The facts in this report speak for themselves. Speaker, to the Premier, will this government put patients ahead of profits?

Interjections.

I want to wish everyone in this House, especially the women, a happy International Women’s Day again, and I am reflecting on how far women and gender-diverse people have come and how far we have to go.

Nurses and personal support workers have been lauded by the government for their heroism. They hold up our health care system, they take care of our loved ones and they’re predominantly women. But this government is fighting them in court over the right to suppress their wages—shameful.

My question to the Premier is, will he drop his wasteful appeal of his government’s legislated wage gap, Bill 124?

I’d like to thank all of the citizens of London West who signed a petition to stop the government’s health care privatization plan. It reads:

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas Ontarians should get health care based on need—not the size of their wallet;

“Whereas” the Premier “and Health Minister ... say they’re planning to privatize parts of health care;

“Whereas privatization will bleed nurses, doctors and PSWs out of our public hospitals, making the health care crisis worse;

“Whereas privatization always ends with patients getting a bill;

“Therefore we, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to immediately stop all plans to further privatize Ontario’s health care system, and fix the crisis in health care by:

“—repealing Bill 124 and recruiting, retaining and respecting doctors, nurses and PSWs with better pay and better working conditions;

“—licensing tens of thousands of internationally educated nurses and other health care professionals already in Ontario, who wait years and pay thousands to have their credentials” recognized;

“—making education and training free or low-cost for nurses, doctors and other health care professionals;

“—incentivizing doctors and nurses to choose to live and work in northern Ontario;

“—funding hospitals to have enough nurses on every shift, on every ward.”

I fully support this petition. I will affix my signature and send it to the table with page Harry.