In fact, what Bill 7 seeks to do is improve the quality of care for our seniors who are in hospital. It is very, very clear that—

Interjection.

What the bill actually does is provide a better quality of care—the right care in the right place at the right time. I think we would all agree that, for our seniors, they deserve the best quality of care possible. That is why, in particular when he talks about the north, we have made so many investments in long-term care in the north, because we want to ensure that the discrepancies that existed for far too long between north and south, urban and rural, are no longer part of the fabric of the Ontario health care system. That is why we’ve also partnered with First Nations to ensure that there are bed allocations specifically for First Nation communities, and we will continue to do it.

Bill 7 is a positive step in helping us reform our health care system once and for all, and we’re on our way.

What we are doing with Bill 7 is ensuring that our seniors who are waiting for long-term care have access to that quality of care while they wait for their preferred home of choice.

I will let the opposition continue to fantasize about what we are doing in Bill 7, but what we are finally doing is putting our health care system, and ALC in particular, on the right path. It’s because of the investments that we’ve made; we’re improving health care and we’re getting it done for seniors in the north and the—

I just want to get this straight: So the member now is advocating in favour of the bill that we just passed, while at the same time advocating against it, all in one question?

That is what Bill 7 is all about: It is about improving care for our seniors, because nobody thinks that a senior who is in a hospital waiting for long-term care should be sitting in a hospital. Nobody believes that, because they don’t have access to the physical exercise that they need. They don’t have social opportunities. That is why we passed Bill 7, to ensure that our seniors who are waiting for long-term care can get into long-term care faster. That’s the whole point of it.

Only the NDP are suggesting that a hospital room is a better place for a senior waiting to be in long-term care. We disagree with that, and that is why Bill 7 allows us to get our seniors who are waiting in a hospital into long-term care.

Mr. Speaker, as I promised, the regulations will be out very, very soon, and people will undoubtedly see how the opposition’s fearmongering over this bill was uncalled for.

More importantly, what the member refuses to highlight is how important this policy change is to ensuring that our seniors who are in hospital, who have been discharged or are waiting to be discharged, who are on the long-term-care-home waiting list, get the appropriate level of care in a long-term-care home.

I will let the opposition argue why a senior wanting to be in a long-term-care home should be waiting in a hospital, should be without the social environment that comes with a long-term-care home and the physical activity that comes with a long-term-care home, should be subject to the disease that comes when somebody is in a hospital. These are our seniors who are waiting to be in long-term care, and the best care for them is in a long-term-care home. It is a home, not a hospital, and that is what we want our seniors to progress to.