Ma question est pour la ministre de la Santé.

Linda Luyt from Sudbury is an endometrial cancer survivor. She requires annual PAP tests by her oncology team. She had her test on October 18. Usually, it takes between three and six weeks for the results to come in. But when she called her doctor last week, she was told that it now takes six months for the results to come in.

Minister, is six months an acceptable amount of time for a cancer patient to wait for a diagnostic test result?

Ontario lab services are now dominated by LifeLabs, a private, for-profit company. In my riding, LifeLabs offers terrible customer service. They let frail, elderly people wait outside in minus-20 weather. They have minimum staffing. They have minimum hours of operation and huge delays for test results.

Does the minister agree that privatization of our lab services made our lab services worse?

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas a basic principle of health care is that it must be patient-centred instead of profit-centred; and

“Whereas the introduction of profit in health care has consistently led to poorer health outcomes in Canada and around the world; and

“Whereas the introduction of profits and privatized health care creates a division between those who can afford it and those who cannot;

“We, the undersigned, call upon the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to enact the following measures:

“(1) Recommit to honouring and defending the Canada Health Act;

“(2) Guarantee that health care in Ontario will not be privatized;

“(3) Ensure that in every case, health care system decisions are patient-centred and not profit-centred;

“(4) Commit to solve the challenges in our health care system through public and not-for-profit initiatives.”

I support this petition. I am signing it and am pleased to hand it to page Yusuf.