What I will say to the people of Ontario is that we are fixing a health care system that was woefully ignored by the previous Liberal government. The former Premier, Kathleen Wynne, admitted publicly that she should not have cut those 50 doctor spaces as they did to assist in their health care crisis.

We are making the investments. Already we’re seeing additional health human resources in our communities—over 12,000 new health human resources who are working out in our communities, in our hospitals, in our long-term-care homes. We’re continuing to do that work by increasing residency spots, by increasing access, ensuring that young people who want to choose a career in health care have those options. In many cases, nurses and PSWs in particular are getting that opportunity with assistance financially from our government.

We’ll make the investments. We’ll continue to do the work. But frankly, we were left with a system that had been ignored for far too long.

The member opposite is highlighting exactly why our government is making the commitments and making the investments in the health care system. We are hiring and training additional health human resources, whether those are lab technicians, personal support workers, nurses, doctors. We’re making those investments because we saw that we did not have sufficient capacity.

The health care system was ignored for far too long. We’re making those investments now. We are seeing some very good work out in the field, in the community. We’re seeing the increased numbers of nurses and PSWs who are working in the system—over 12,000 more than pre-pandemic. We’ll continue to get the job done, and we’ll make those investments so that we don’t have long wait times for things like diagnostic testing.

You are talking about how we need to increase capacity. We are doing that. As a government, we are ensuring that all partners have the ability to expand and continue to offer services in our community, and we will do that with all of our partners. We are not going to freeze out individuals and organizations that can be part of the solution.

“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.