My question for the Premier: According to Dr. Michael Warner, the OR at Michael Garron Hospital in Toronto dropped to using just two out of 10 operating rooms at 4 p.m. That’s eight operating rooms sitting empty for more than 12 hours per day.

Why is the government choosing to send surgeons, nurses and funding to private, for-profit clinics while operating rooms in our hospitals sit idle?

Why is this government refusing to use the operating room, CT and MRI capacity we already have?

Thank you to the member opposite for giving me an opportunity to highlight the announcement that we made with the Minister of Long-Term Care on Thursday. It’s a plan to stay open, health care stability and resistance: a five-point plan that talks about not only health care human resources but giving hospitals the additional investments that they need to make sure that when there are operating suites available we are funding them additionally.

We are doing programs that allow our paramedics to go into community and serve people in community. In my own community, on the weekend, I was approached by someone who said they had been using the community paramedicine program for years, and they love it. It is exactly what they need to be able to stay safely at home.

The five-point plan covers a number of areas that we know we can focus better on and ensure that we have the health care services we need, where we need them.

I only point to the Ontario Hospital Association’s comments after the Thursday announcement: The OHA “supports the strategy announced today by the government of Ontario for the fall and winter 2022-23 as it will help maintain access to health services during what is expected to be a challenging period. It is essential that all partners continue to work closely together with a ‘Team Ontario’ approach to overcome the complex, underlying issues facing the health care system. Hospitals are here to serve the people of Ontario and will continue to do everything possible to meet their health service needs.”

We will continue those partnerships.

My question is to the Premier. Last week, we got to see the Conservatives’ long-term-care plan. Cruel doesn’t even begin to describe it. Hospital discharge planners have always been allowed to have conversations with patients. However, the new regulations give them power to assess a patient without consent, to send their personal information to a private care home without their consent, to discharge them from the hospital and admit them into a long-term-care facility without their consent.

Informed consent is a cornerstone of modern medicine and health care. My question is clear: How on earth did the Premier come up with this cruel scheme instead of just properly resourcing our long-term-care system?

Speaker, this bill seeks to send seniors out of their communities to homes with open beds. Do you know which homes are most likely to have open beds? They are private, for-profit long-term-care homes with terrible records of abuse and no air conditioning in their rooms—we have 79 care homes that have no air conditioning as of this weekend—the same private care homes with PC insiders on their boards.

How can this government even pretend to care about seniors when they are literally proposing to rip them from their families? Will the Premier accept responsibility when seniors deteriorate under this scheme and get abused like they have been for a couple of years now in these facilities?

Speaker, 5,000 seniors have died in long-term-care homes over the last couple of years, and 40 of them died last week—parents, grandparents, mothers-in-law, fathers-in-law. Under this government’s watch, we have seniors waiting in hospital because there are no long-term-care beds in their own communities. We have seniors roasting in long-term-care homes that are over 40 degrees because there’s no air conditioning in their rooms. Now the government’s own legislation says seniors will be sent to homes outside their community without consent.

When will this government admit they completely failed on this file and left seniors behind? Taking care of seniors shouldn’t be a part-time job. When will the Premier appoint a full-time Minister of Long-Term Care? Seniors deserve no less.

I would like to thank the member for Whitby for the question and the obvious passion which he brings to the file. I can assure the member that, of course, no such action will be taken. Consent will still be required.

Ultimately, we do understand how important it is that loved ones—family, friends, spouses, partners—are close to their loved ones in long-term care, not only because they provide assistance with day-to-day activities but because of the emotional support that comes with having a loved one nearby.

But it also reflects that the best care for somebody who has been discharged from a hospital is not in a hospital. It is in a long-term-care home. As the parliamentary assistant said, we want to turn people from patients into residents. We have the ability to do so. I’m very proud of the fact that long-term care can be part of the solution.

Specific to the question, assuming that this Legislature passes this bill, we will quickly present regulations no later than one week following the passage of the bill.

Frankly, we are working with our partners at all levels—municipal and the federal government—to not only identify these wells but to cap them. As I said, funding has been put in place to ensure that happens. At the same time, through the good work of the member for Chatham-Kent and, of course, the Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade, local businesses that were impacted by that are being supported.

More work needs to be done, but we’re well on our way to ensuring all communities are safe.

But very specific to her question, despite what the opposition critic is tweeting out and press releases, four-bedroom ward rooms will not be used as part of this solution.

In an answer to one of my colleagues earlier in question period, the Minister of Long-Term Care confirmed that no patient in hospital will be discharged into a long-term-care home against their will, and that he understands the importance of keeping someone in long-term care close to family and friends. However, the opposition are suggesting that as part of the solution to the decades-long challenges in acute care, seniors are being forced back into four-bed ward rooms. These ward rooms were singled out by the long-term-care commission as being a serious part of the problem in the initial waves of COVID-19.

Can the minister confirm if he is considering this as part of the solution, and if so, what evidence does he have that they are now safer?

The minister has stated that long-term care is able to be part of the solution. Can the minister explain what additional resources are provided to improve residents’ quality of care?

My question follows up on the previous two questions from my colleagues to the Minister of Long-Term Care. While I appreciate that no senior will be discharged from the hospital into a home against their will and no patient will be separated by great distance from family and friends, I am concerned about the resources being available. I’m not talking about additional funding that will be part of this, but more the availability of staff in homes that receive a senior discharge from a hospital.

Given the staffing challenge faced across the sector, how will the minister ensure that no senior discharged from a hospital becomes a resident of a home that is understaffed? What exactly would be the point of reducing stress in the acute care sector only to add it to the long-term-care sector and put residents at risk?