The long-term-care sector is facing increased capacity pressures. As of April 2022, there were approximately 39,000 people on the wait-list for a long-term-care bed. While seniors wait to be placed in a long-term-care home, their health care needs often fall to their spouses, children and other loved ones.

Speaker, families and friends are excellent at providing love and support, but most are not health care practitioners, and they cannot provide the same level of care as one.

Speaker, what is the Minister of Long-Term care doing to ensure our seniors receive the care they need right now?

I want to thank the member for Markham–Unionville for this question. It’s actually a very important one. He raises a good point: There are still a number of people who are on the long-term-care wait-list.

While it is a very positive step that we are building 58,000 new and upgraded beds across every part of the province—urban, rural and remote communities—it is also very true that a lot of people want to stay in their home as long as possible, and they need assistance in order to do that. And so do the family members who care for them. That is why I was very happy that we returned the respite care program to our long-term-care homes. But also the community paramedicine program, which was launched by my predecessor, which is available throughout the province of Ontario, is a very significant way—it leverages the resources of paramedics, who we all thank for the incredible service that they do. It leverages their services when not on an emergency call to assist our seniors in their homes, and it has proven to be a very popular and very effective way of keeping our seniors in their homes as long as we possibly can.

I’m very pleased with our municipal partners across the province of Ontario, and of course, it’s just another great reason why we all support our front-line workers, like paramedics, across the province of Ontario, who are helping seniors stay in their home longer.