This is a rather sad day for me, Speaker. This is a day that I knew was coming, but this is not a day that I was looking forward to.

I come from the party of Tommy Douglas, a party that believes in medicare, a party that believes that care should be based on needs, not on ability to pay. With this bill today, this is about to go out the window. This government is taking a step that we’ll never be able to backtrack on; that will destroy a program that defines us as Canadians, a program that defines us as Ontarians—that we care for one another, that you don’t have to have money to receive the care you need. This is the Canadian way. This is something that we’ve built for decades, and today, we’re taking a huge step to destroy it.

I want to talk a little bit about clarifying the public and credit cards and health cards in all of this. Right now, in Ontario, we have publicly owned facilities. Publicly owned facilities are community health centres, public health units, that kind of stuff. We have privately owned not-for-profit facilities. Those are our hospitals. Our hospitals are owned by corporations, but they are not-for-profit. There are four of them that were granted when medicare came into place, but they play a very, very small role; 152 hospitals in Ontario are not-for-profit.

Then we have physician-owned small businesses. Those are most doctors’ offices. They care for 1,000 or 2,000 patients. They pay for their rent and the cleaning and the secretary and maybe a nurse, and they are the doctor’s office. They are physician-owned small businesses. That’s not what we’re talking about in this bill.

In this bill, we are talking about private, for-profit, investor-owned corporations. Those are corporations that have nothing to do with care. They are willing to invest the millions of dollars it will take to build surgical suites, to build MRIs and everything else that the government wants to privatize, to make for-profit. They are willing to invest that money. Why? Because there is a lot of money to be made off of the backs of sick people. How do they do this? Well, sure, the surgeons, the physicians will bill OHIP for their services, like they would in a hospital, like they would in their private clinic, but what those private, for-profit, investor-owned corporations do is that they use the power imbalance that exists between the physician, the specialist, who’s about to put a laser to your eye, who’s about to cut open your knee, your hip, your whatever—there is a real power imbalance between the person who provides the care and the person who needs the care. What those private, for-profit, investor-owned corporations do is they use this power imbalance to ask for money, and there’s no shame in asking for a ton of money from people who are sick, from people who need care.

Unfortunately, it is already happening a little wee bit in Ontario right now—more than a little wee bit; it’s already happening in Ontario. Now, we are about to open the door to those private, for-profit, investor-owned corporations that are just biting at the bit to come into Ontario, because Ontario is a very lucrative market where it doesn’t matter if they will have to put upfront millions of dollars to set up those surgical suites. They can guarantee their investors double-digit returns for years on end. And we are not talking 11% returns here; we are talking into the 25%, 30% returns. So if you have the money to invest in those million-dollar, private, for-profit, investor-owned corporations, they will guarantee you a huge payback. The payback will come from sick people, like you and I—I don’t wish harm upon anyone. I wish we could all be healthy all the time, but we know that this is not the reality. Some of us will get sick; some of us will need care. Then they will charge, and they will charge lots. This is where most of their profit will be made. Some will do double billing—not that many, I hope, but it will be there.

When we look at some of the myths that they are putting forward, the first one is that those new private, for-profit, investor-owned corporations will alleviate wait times in the public system. There is tons of evidence that shows that this is not the case. Australia was the last one to introduce a parallel system, in 1997, and we’ve seen what happened. Basically what happened was they made the wait times worse for most of us. A few rich people will pay for the extra and will get faster care, but most Ontarians won’t. For most of us, it will mean longer wait times.

Myth number two: Private, for-profit ownership of health care facilities leads to better health outcomes. This has been studied to death also. The body of evidence is really strong. I can name you study after study that shows that the profit model does not incentivize high-quality care. In fact, for-profit delivery has been associated with an increased mortality.

There are some who will have you believe that private, for-profit, investor-owned corporations will make health care more efficient. All of those have been studied. All of those have been looked at. None of those pull through. They are not more efficient, and the list goes on.

Today, with this bill, we are opening up the door to private, for-profit, investor-owned corporations who will deliver the care. The single payer will stay in place. The Ontario government will continue to pay for medically necessary care, for medically necessary surgery. They will continue to pay. What will change is that those corporations will find hundreds of ways to make you pay.

I have the example of Mr. Dutton, who—I need to wrap up—

One of the things I’ve heard repeatedly from the opposition is that this is going to cost people out of pocket, that somehow OHIP isn’t going to cover all these things and that people are going to have to pull their credit card out all the time. Is there anything in this legislation that protects Ontarians from any extra billing?

Thank you very much to the member opposite for the question. Frankly, what we’re concerned about is making sure that people get health care quickly, conveniently, in their communities. That’s what this legislation is all about. In the last election, I believe Bill 124 was an issue of discussion. We did have an election result which re-elected this government with an even greater majority. I think the people have spoken.

If you talk to them, the people who receive services want our health care system to be better, and that’s what this government is focused on doing. That’s what this Minister of Health is focused on doing: making a better, more convenient health care system to provide services to all Ontarians and good results for all Ontarians so we have better health care.

I understand that people like to use words in debate. They like to use the words “private” and “public,” but I think those words confuse people, because most people don’t have the same meaning in mind.

I heard Dr. Jane Philpott say this on TVO’s The Agenda when she mentioned these. They were having a debate about this whole issue, about public versus private health care. People don’t care about that issue. What they care about is whether they’re paying with their OHIP card, and that is the most important thing. You will continue to pay for health services with your OHIP card.

Ontarians are tired of waiting for health care. We want them to get their health care sooner. It’s better for their health. It’s better for diagnostics. It means they have a better chance of having a great outcome, and that’s what we are—

I’m pleased to rise about a constituent of mine from Greely: Anna Bailie. Anna is a tireless advocate for Ontarians with congenital heart defects and has been working with other board members of the Canadian Congenital Heart Alliance to raise awareness through Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Week, which took place from February 7 to 14. This is a part of February itself being Heart Month.

Congenital heart defects are structural problems that are present in the heart from birth. While once considered a disease that was fatal during childhood, progress has been made over the last 50 years in diagnoses, surgery, and interventional catheter-based procedures. Because of these advancements, about 90% of children born with heart defects survive into adulthood.

For Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Week, the Canadian Congenital Heart Alliance organized several events to raise awareness, including lighting monuments across Canada red and giving proclamations in major cities.

I would like to thank Anna Bailie and the Canadian Congenital Heart Alliance for their hard work and advocacy to educate Ontarians about congenital heart defects and to continue to raise money for research to ensure that Canadians with congenital heart disease can receive the most innovative treatment.

As Ontarians, let’s support the hard work of Anna Bailie and the Canadian Congenital Heart Alliance.

Ontarians deserve better health care. There was a recent report that showed that ERs have been closed across Ontario 158 times over the past year. It’s absolutely inexcusable, and this government’s actions have worsened that crisis. Bill 124, which illegally caps health care workers’ wages at 1% over the last four years has made them feel completely unappreciated and driven health care workers out of the system.

Now this government has introduced legislation to privatize our public health care system, to transfer our tax dollars and our health care workers from the public system into a private, for-profit system. This is only going to worsen the crisis that we are already facing in health care. Ontarians deserve health care. They deserve health care when they need it.

This government is playing an ideological game. All of the people who are waiting in emergency rooms, all of the people who are waiting for hip surgeries and knee surgeries: Know that your suffering is part of this government’s ideological goal of privatizing the system. And if you think that you’re going to be better cared for in that private, for-profit system, just look at the Armed Forces report on long-term care during the pandemic and see how poorly the private, for-profit system created by the previous Conservative government treated seniors in our province.

I think the Premier has answered that on a number of occasions. Equally important, the integrity commissioner has also reviewed that.

What this is obviously about is the inability of the opposition to see what is happening in the province of Ontario—the progress, the prosperity that is happening across our province. We want to build new homes for people. We want the over 300,000 people who are coming to Ontario each and every year to fill the thousands of jobs that are available because of the incredible investments that have been made by this minister, by this Premier, to bring jobs back to Ontario.

And do you know what they want? They want what everybody wants—what my parents wanted, what everybody wants when they come to this country: They want to have the ability to buy their first home. They want to have a community to live in that is prosperous. They want to be able to raise a family, have good schools and safe streets. That is what we’re doing: building a stronger, more prosperous, safer Ontario. They’ll do everything in their power to avoid that happening.

Interjections.

And what are we doing? We’re building back this province, stronger than it was before. We’re cutting taxes for people. We’re building roads. We’re building highways. We’re building transit systems. We’re building 60,000 new long-term-care beds across the province of Ontario. Our Minister of Agriculture is doing everything that she can to make one of the most important industries in our province prosperous, despite punishing carbon taxes from the federal government. We’re going to continue to get the job done despite the Leader of the Opposition.

Interjection.

But look, the people of the province of Ontario made a very important decision in June. What they decided to do was reduce the opposition and elect more Progressive Conservatives to this chamber to get their priorities done. They had had enough of the negativity that was coming from the opposition. This is a party who couldn’t even muster enough energy up to have a leadership race; they had to appoint their leader. It’s a party that has been so diminished by the people of the province of Ontario that their newly elected, selected leader won’t even sit in the seat of the opposition leader, but wants to sit over. But that’s not important.

What is important is building better for the people of the province of Ontario, building more homes so that the next generation can have every bit of optimism that they can afford to have a home, that people can have jobs and opportunity, like millions of other Ontarians have had. The people of Ontario know that only this side and the members of the Conservative caucus on that side will get it—

Interjections.

Ma question est pour la ministre de la Santé.

Yesterday, the minister took a huge step towards the destruction of medicare. The Auditor General, Canadian Doctors for Medicare, the Ontario Health Coalition, Health Quality Ontario, the Canadian Medical Association and Ontarians are all saying the same thing: The minister’s bill will allow corporations to make big profits off the backs of sick people. Yet there is no oversight to protect patients in her bill. Why not?

Why is the minister destroying medicare?

Again, I want to thank my honourable colleague for the question. In addition to the record purpose-built rental starts that we had last year, our latest piece of legislation, More Homes Built Faster Act, offers incentives for the construction of more rental units by reducing development fees: 25% on three-or-more-bedroom units, a 20% discount on two-bedroom units and a 15% discount on one-bedroom units.

To further increase rental supply, we also introduced as-of-right policies in our most recent bill to allow for more units to be constructed on existing residential lots. Other legislation allows for basement apartments, garden houses or main residences to have up to three rental units without obtaining additional building permits or paying any additional development fees.

Ontarians deserve to have affordable options when it comes to housing, and as we’ve said before, we’re going to continue fighting for every Ontarian to make sure they do in this province.

Thank you very much to the member from Nickel Belt for clearly outlining all the risks that are associated with Bill 60. Expanding for-profit health care will cost us more, and it will deliver less.

And we should be looking at other jurisdictions that have made the same mistake. In fact, the Saskatchewan Health Authority just bought back five Extendicare homes with gruesome track records during the pandemic. They paid $13.1 million for these homes, just to stop avoidable deaths.

My question for the member from Nickel Belt: What is at stake going down the line—both on a financial and economic impact but also on the health outcomes for Ontarians?

I want to speak of what people expect from their government: that their government should be people-oriented and, at the same, results-oriented. We have shown that in the pandemic that protecting the health and safety of Ontarians was the topmost priority for our government and also, at the same time, results-oriented. We’re not building only hospitals and medical schools; we’re making unprecedented investments in health care. By the way, the first medical school we’re getting in over 100 years, the opposition voted against that medical school.

They can always stand in the House and give lectures on the quality of health care services, but when it comes to action, they will vote against those bills. Will the member opposite and their partners do the right thing and support this bill?

I am sharing my time with the member from Mississauga–Malton.

Thank you to the Minister of Health for introducing the Your Health Act, 2023. We’re moving in the right direction to improve medical care in our province. I am privileged to rise for the second reading of the Your Health Act, 2023, and to speak on behalf of my constituents in Richmond Hill.

The legislation represents a significant step forward for Ontario, building on our government’s commitment to breaking down barriers and ensuring that every Ontarian has access to quality health care and services when and where they need them. We have to provide the right care at the right time.

As I’m sitting here listening to the presentation just now, I feel that there are a lot of misunderstandings. I agree with the member for Eglinton–Lawrence saying that it doesn’t seem that they really read the legislation clearly. There’s a lot of information in here, and they were trying to say something which was totally different.

We’re saying that we are not going to do the status quo. Basically, we have to find the solutions to give the best health care for Ontarians. We are caring for all the patients, the people that need our support in health care.

The Your Health Act, 2023, is a bold and innovative piece of legislation that aims to address the long-standing challenges of our health care system. It recognizes that Ontario’s health care system must be more responsive and flexible to meet the changing needs of our communities, including an aging population and a growing demand for surgeries.

The Your Health Act, 2023, focuses on several key objectives, including making it easier and faster for people to connect to the convenient care closer to home, enhancing quality standards and oversight and protecting the stability of the health care workforce in public hospitals and other health care settings.

One of the most important aspects of the Your Health Act, 2023, is integration of community surgical and diagnostic centres into our health care system. These centres will help reduce wait times and improve patient experiences, allowing people to access the surgeries they need to maintain a high quality of life.

I have a friend who has been calling me and telling me that her mother has been suffering from knee and hip pain, and she has been waiting for three months and still cannot get on to having the surgery that they aim at or are planning to have. Part of that is because of the pandemic and part of that is because the surgeries have been lined up for so long. The same way, I have somebody, a constituent from my riding, also writing to me that she was diagnosed by the family doctor and she’s waiting for the MRI and CT scan. Can you imagine? The MRI and CT scan can really diagnose what she will have and the treatment that she needs. Not only will she be suffering—all her family members have been suffering.

If we would be able to move up all these things faster, not only will they relieve the pain faster, they will have the results of what they need to take care of the problem. Hospitals will also have the room to take care of other surgeries and more severe treatments that we need for our Ontarians.

The Your Health Act, 2023, will also mandate that every community surgical and diagnostic centre must have a process for receiving and responding to the patient complaints. This process will include the documentation of all complaints. That’s why I don’t know why the opposition party is so concerned, because it’s made very clear: If patients are not able to have their complaints addressed through the centre, they will be able to seek help from the Patient Ombudsman.

The act includes community surgical and diagnostic centres under the oversight of Ontario’s Patient Ombudsman, who will report on any patient complaints and will adjust quality and oversight controls as needed to be responsive to these concerns. This will ensure that patients are always heard and their feedback is taken seriously.

Madam Speaker, another critical component of the Your Health Act, 2023, is protecting the stability of doctors, nurses and other health care workers. The act will mandate several components of a proposed centre’s application to protect the stability of health care workers at the public hospitals and other health care settings. This includes the requirement to submit a detailed staffing model, including evidence of its sustainability.

Consistent with the Canada Health Act, the Your Health Act, 2023, will put into place strong measures to ensure that Ontarians will always receive insured services using their OHIP card and never their credit card. These measures mean that all insured services must be provided without extra charge to the patient. Under Premier Ford, this will not happen. We will only pay by the OHIP card and never by the credit card.

The Your Health Act, 2023, will also strengthen protections for personal health information and data. The act will require community surgical and diagnostic centres to implement strong privacy and security protocols to protect patient information. This will help to ensure that patient privacy is respected and that their personal health information is protected from unauthorized access or disclosure.

I might have a lot more to say, but I will leave that with my great member to continue with the following presentation.